$55,000 FOR SWIMMERS

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32321, 12 June 1970, Page 13

$55,000 FOR SWIMMERS

WASHINGTON. The world professional marathon swimming organisation Iras sanctioned seven longdistance international championship events in the next three months. The International commissioner of marathon swimming (Johnny Weissmuller) said yesterday that 100 endurance swimmers would compete in the races, to be held in Europe and North America, competing for prizes totalling $55,000. Mr Weissmuller said other races probably would be arranged in Hawaii, Hong Kong and Australia next December and January. A 24hour team race in Santa Fe,

Argentina, was planned for December. , NJE. REPRESENTED Swimmers will represent the United States. Argentina, Italy, Canada, Netherlands, I Greece, the United Arab Republic, New Zealand and; Jugoslavia. Utrecht will be the site of: the season’s curtain-raiser, a> 12.5-mile event, on June 27. It will be the first professional marathon swimming race held in the Netherlands, and Mr Weissmuller will attend the race, returning to! the country in which he won: the last two of his five Olympic medals in 1928. The seventeenth annual( race from Capri to Naples: will be held over a 21-mile| course on July 12, with the cream of -European andj Middle Distance swimmers scheduled to compete. TEAMS’ EVENT I The competition moves to Canada for the sixth annual 24-hour team championship. I at La Tuaue. Quebec, on July

18 and 19. two-member teams competing for the $3500 first ( prize. The sixth annual Labatts’ international 10-mile championship will be contested on Lake Ontario, at Hamilton, on July 26, with a $3OOO prize ( for the winner. The other events are the I annual crossing of Lac St Jean, from Peribonka to Roberval, Quebec, on August !1, a 26.5-mile race from Portsmouth to Newport, Rhode Island, on August 29. and the season’s longest event, the annual 28-mile swim from Chicoutimi to Bagotville, on the Saguenay River in the Quebec province, on August 29. Mr Weissmuller said the world federation, whose headquarters are in Washington, would crown male and female world champions on the basis of points won, positions, comparative finishing times, and distances of courses. <