World backstroke record broken

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 7

World backstroke record broken

Wendy Cook (Canada), who was expected to break the world 100 m backstroke record in the Games final on Wednesday, but failed, surprised a capacity audience when she achieved the feat last evening.

final. Miss. Yost took the.i gold medal by o.o7sec. al- jt though she almost let Miss Stenhouse win the gold by ;I taking a quick extra stroke. ■ < : The Australian girl,,who isjl only sft lin. set a Games , record of 2min 20.665ec, beat-;! ing the time she set in the i ' heats. Earlier in the dav shej< had swum a strenuous 200mll backstroke heat. “I did not feel too good. 1 in the first length, but half- I 'way through- the last lap 1 ! 1 knew I had a chance.” “Just died” Miss • Stenhouse,. who won ■ the gold medal for 100 m but- ( terfly oh Monday, said she , was unable to hold off Miss , (Yost. • 1 ' “I just died,” she said. Both Miss Yost and the bronze medal w'inner, Gail i 'Neall (Australia), cuddled: koalas at the presentation by ' ■Prince Charles. He said to Miss' Neall, “Oh heavens, I have never seen such large l j koalas,” when he saw her outsize model. ' Tape snapped The Australian, Neil Rogers, had a moment, of horror before he won the, gold medal for t-he 100 m but- : terfly. The tape in his swim trunks snapped just before I the race and the event was i : held up as he dashed to the ... . . i

Miss Cook swam the 1 first leg of the 4 x 100 m j medley relay for the< Canadian team in Imin , 4.7Bsec, o.2lsec faster than the old mark, held * by Ursula Richter (East ‘ Germany). I 1 Miss Richter’s record was!] set at the world champion-! ships in Belgrade last Septem-H ber. i| Miss Cook’s world record: was the first established at the Christchurch Games. The slender teen-ager wast four lengths clear of her nearest rival at the end of the backstroke leg. “I was just trying to do my! best for the relay team,” she! said. She has been coached for! seven years by Mr Derek! •Snelling, at the Dolphin Club,! in Vancouver; she is the first! world record-holder he has ■ produced. More to conie? Mr Snelling said Miss Cook was capable of reducing her time further, and possibly! capable of breaking the world record for 200 m. “At the moment, she is! not quite as strong as some! of the other girls in the squad i but her strength will increase! as she grows older. There; was less pressure on her to break the record this evenings and she was completely. relaxed when she entered the pool. On Wednesday evening, she was too tense. "We had a talk before the race and mentioned just about everything except the world record. What we wanted from her was a four ! nr five yard lead in the re-! lay.” Miss Cook is Canada’s first! world record-holtjer in swimming in six years and a half. The Canadian team, inspired by her splendid effort, set■ new Games and Common- j wealth records in winning; the event by 10m from' Australia. Half an hour earlier, an-' other Canadian. Patti Sten- ■. house, was gathered in sm | from the wall by Sandra Yost in the 200m' butterfly 1

changing rooms to don a seciond pair. , “I asked the referee (Mr M. R. Duckmanton) if -1 could change them and fortunately he said yes,” Rogers grinned. Rogers, > who beat • the , Games record-holder, ’Bvron , Macdonald, and the world ' champion, ,Bruce Robertson, , both of Canada, was not re- . cognised by many spectators. , He had shaved off his mous- , tache before the race because ’he thought a clean-cut look would help him psychologic[ally. “But : I did it. largely because of my mother’s urgings, and Dad did hot like it either,” he said. “And it took two or three months to grow.” Olympic rivalry I The 20-year-old Rogers is| a student at the University: of Wisconsin and returned to j Australia for the selection: trials? He and the two Canadians ate old rivals and afteri the race they vowed to meet' again at the 1976. Olympics. I Rogers did not have a.sat-j isfactory victory ceremony. ■ In .the.absence of. a band, a; record of “Advance Australia Fair” -was. played, but the disc stuttered, jumped, and finally , lost pace — and what should have been a solemn moment became slapstick. High scoring Beverley Boys, a 22-year-old, blue-eyed blonde from Canada, turned her sights towards the Montreal Olympics i in two years’ time after re-i taining her Commonwealth' highboard title on the: strength of a high-scoring final effort, a twisting two, and a half somersault. Before this dive, she was: fractionally behind an Eng-; lish girl, Beverly Williams, who was distinguishable by! her purple fingernails. “I did not dive as well as I would have liked,” Miss Boys said. “1 have scored 390 i points in a contest of this; nature but tonight my score; was only 360 — and I felt that the judges’ marking was a little high. "I would have been happy, with a winning score of 375.. but I confess 1 did not dive (Well enough to deserve such a figure.”