Below-Best Miss Haddon 2nd, Eliminated From Swimming

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30569, 12 October 1964, Page 15

Below-Best Miss Haddon 2nd, Eliminated From Swimming

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) TOKYO, October 11. The New Zealand swimmer, Miss Vivien Haddon, finished second in her heat of the Olympic women’s 200 metres breastsroke today but failed to qualify for the final.

Her time, 2min 53sec, was well outside her best and not nearly enough to gain her a place among the eight fastest who qualified. By the time Miss Haddon swam in the fourth and final heat this afternoon. Miss Anita Lonsbrough’s Olympic record of 2min 49.55ec, set at Rome in 1960, had been bettered four times.

The New Zealand girl's heat was won by the British swimm?r, Miss Jill Slattery, in 2min 50.2 sec. Miss Haddon made a gallant attempt to stay with the English girl but over the final

stages the gap between them widened, and the New Zealander was about 10 feet behind at the finish. The Dutch swimmer. Miss Geertruida Looijs, finished third in 2min 54.55ec. Miss Haddon, who has been training very hard in Tokyo and getting near her best times, was very disappointed with her effort. But by the time her heat came up there was little prospect that she would make the final. Continental swimmers had set a sizzling pace in both the previous heats. The German champion, Miss Barbel Grimmer, held the Olympic record she set in the second heat for not much more than a few minutes.

The Russian, Miss Svetlana Babavina, set a new Olympic time of 2min 48.3 sec in the third heat. Miss Grimmer beat the world record-holder. Miss Galina Prozumenschikova. of the Soviet Union, whose time of 2min 49sec also bettered the Rome Olympic record. The world record is 2min 45.45ec. Miss Haddon’s heat, won in 2min 50.2 sec, was the third fastes* of the four held to decide the eight qualifiers for tomorrow’s final. Her swim was watched by the New Zealand Ambassador in Japan, Mr E. B. E. Taylor, and Mrs Taylor who sat with New Zealand team officials.