YOUNGEST AT 12

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30827, 12 August 1965, Page 15

YOUNGEST AT 12

Swimming Record fN.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) BLACKPOOL, August 11. Karen Muir, a 12-year-old South African girl, became the youngest world recordholder in the history of sport. Her time of 68.7 sec in the 110 yards batkstroke broke the world record by eight tenths of a second. She was swimming in a heat of the British swimming championships at Blackpool yesterday. Mr Norris McWhirter, editor of the Guiness Book of Records, said: “By the rule of absolute measurement there are only five sportsswimming, athletics, shooting, weight-lifting and cycling—in which a world record can be set. “And none of those five has any recorded history of a 12-year-old record breaker. “The nearest examples have been Sonja Henie, who won her first world figure skating title at the age of 12, and Bernard Malivoire, who, at 12, was cox to the French crew, which won the gold medal in the coxed pairs in the 1952 Olympic Games. “It is very rare to find a sports international at 12 — although Joy Foster did play table tennis for Jamaica at the age of eight in 1958. But a world record-breaker at 12 is completely unknown,” he added. All the fantastic swim earned for Karen, the “baby” of the South Africa touring team, was a place in the girls’ 110 yards backstroke final—she had not entered for the senior event. She stormed home yards ahead of her nearest rival. But the occasion proved too much for her—as she was lifted out of the water she burst into tears.