More swim records

Press, 26 July 1976, Page 12

More swim records

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Graeme Jenkins

NZPA staff correspondent I Montreal ■

Britain’s first gold medal’ Iby a male swimmer since! 1908. the twenty-second world record so far at the Olympic Pool and a second I New Zealander in an Olym-j pic final were the highlights! of the sixth night ofl i swimming yesterday. Monique Rodahl. the 16-; year-old from North Shore,! I swam 7.33 seconds faster! than she has ever swum be-| fore to qualify in the final of I the women’s 400 metres individual medley. She thus’ ‘joined Rebecca Perrott as one! of the few New Zealand i swimmers, male or female, lever to make an Olympic! i final. The race in which Nicky; Rodahl swum must be re-’ garded as the greatest swimming feat of the games. It; was won by the 18-year-old; Ulrike Tauber in a new world: time of 4min 42.775ec : —an) incredible feat in which she took 6.02 seconds from her; own world record. As a com-; parison, the New Zealand; men’s record held by Mark! Treffers for the same event is 4min 34.905ec. Miss Rodahl finished eighth. Another fabulous swimming feat was that of the 22-year-old Scot. David Wilkie, who took 3.10 seconds from the world record in setting a new mark of 2min 15.11 sec to take the gold medal in th° men’s 200 Imetres breaststroke. There was lots of support for Wilkie, including the i youngest member of the Royal Family, Prince Edward, who was among those who rose to the new champion as he made his victory stroll along the length of the pool i Wilkie, who was silver imedallist in the 100 breast,stroke event earlier in the [week to America’s John 'Hencken, made his winning! ■spurt about 75 metres from ! home and with hot competi-’ jtion from Hencken he purged to the new record. Wilkie, one of the stars at; ithe Christchurch Common-; i wealth Games, was the first! Iniale swimmer from Britain; | to win an Olympic gold since 1908. In that year Britain iwon four gold medals.; 'Wilkie’s medal was the first;’ jin the men’s section to elude lan American swimmer at’ Montreal. Four finals were swum yesterday and three of them’ I were in world record time.; There was also one semi-final, which brought a new world (time. I The final of the men’s 200 Imetres backstroke went as! 'expected to the 6ft 6ini i American, John Naber. It was; his fourth gold medal of the Games, the second in individual competition. The work: record-holder for the 100 metres freestyle, Jim Montgomery (U.S.) showed that the day of the

under-50 second swim for the distance is not too far distant. He whittled his own ' best down to a new world ’ time of 50.395ec in the semifinal. The undoubted highlight of the morning’s heats' for New Zealanders was the tremendous swim of Monique Rodahl. With a qualfying time of smin 05.80 it was evident that she would have to surpass herself to have any chance of making the final eight. In the first heat of the gruelling race New Zealand’s Lynne Rowe was below her best and finished' third out of four swimmers! in a time of smin 09.21 sec—“l just wasn’t feeling right” she said afterwards. Mrs Rodahl knew she . would have to break the five , minute mark to have a chance—Susan Hunter’s New Zealand record was smin 03.8 sec. The eventual silver medallist she was up with the race leaders, Ulrike Tauber, and Cheryl Gibson, of Canada, at the end of the first 100 m of butterfly and was in second position after the backstroke leg—her

specialty stroke. She was back in third place at the end of the breaststroke 100 m and retained that position through the final 100 metres of freestyle. Her time of 4min 58.475ec was 7.3.3 seconds faster than she had ever swum before. New Zealand’s third competitor in the medley, Susan Hunter, swam right to her peak form in the next heat and equalled her own best. By that time, however, she was no longer the New Zealander record-holder. New Zealand's only other swimmer involved on the second last day of swimming was Allison Calder, in the .800 metres freestyle. She swam a New Zealand record time of Bmin 57.245ec which gave her eleventh in the event. Unfortunately, only the top eight qualified.