Two N.Z. swimming records broken

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34149, 10 May 1976, Page 3

Two N.Z. swimming records broken

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. Two New Zealand swimming records were broken, and two more unofficially bettered, during the wealth of excellent performances in a very evenlymatched contest between New South Wales country representatives and Auckland, held in the tepid baths on Saturday. N. Wiig (Auckland) clipped o.4sec off the men’s 100 yards mark, when he won the open backstroke event in 56.25ec. The previous mark was held by P. O’Carroll and had stood for nine years. G. Hurring (Auckland) was well clear in his backstroke event, to take N. Wiig’s junior mark from 57.95ec down to 57.25ec for 100 yards. Although Hurring’s time was an improvement of more than four seconds on his previous best, his nominated time for the event, 62sec kept

him out of the fastest heat, which featured both the Australian title-holder and the second-place winner in Hurring’s age group for backstroke, D. Metcalfe and T. Brady. Metcalf recorded 60.2 sec. Wiig’s record-breaking swim was remarkable, in that he had competed and won the open 400 yards freestyle event in 4min 9.6 sec just 30 minutes before his backstroke swim.

Further evidence of his heavy winter training programme paying off was that he contested three other events, and was placed second in the open medlev — O.lsec behind B. Arnold (N.S.W.), who gained third place in the Australian open titles in February. Wiig was a fraction of a second behind

Arnold in the 100 yards butterfly, and touched first in the 100 yards freestyle, but was disqualified for a faulty start. Although, as a visitor, she is not able to claim the mark, Lynne Prosser (N.S.W.) bettered Jane Lowe’s New Zealand junior breaststroke re-

cord by O.lsec, when she clocked 71.9 sec for the 100 yards. Misses Prosser and Lowe are likely to meet when the team travels to Rotorua tomorrow. Penny McCarthy (Auckland) flashed over 100 yards butterfly to be a fraction of a second outside the New Zealand senior and junior record held by Monique Rodahl. Miss McCarthy recorded 61.3 sec. The 400 m freestyle produced an exciting tussle between the Australian titleholder for the 14-year-old grade. Annette Murray, and the Aucklander, Toni Grayburn. Miss Grayburn snatched a vital O.lsec lead at the finish —and their times of 4:11.4 and 4:11.5 would have bettered the equivalent metric record held by the Olympian, Rebecca Perrott, for the short course records. Andrea Hawcridge (Auckland) also excelled. She scored impressive wins in the backstroke, butterfly, freestyle and medley events in her grade for 12 and 13-year-old girls against strong opposition.