Two Australian teenagers smash world swim record; Perrott third

Press, 7 August 1978, Page 17

Two Australian teenagers smash world swim record; Perrott third

by

ROD DEW

in Edmonton 1

The world record for the women’s 800 metres freestyle was lowered by almost six seconds in an absorbing struggle between two teen-aged Australian swimmers in the Commonwealth Games final of the event in the Kinsman Pool, Edmonton, yesterday.

Tracey Wickham, a 15-year-old schoolgirl, won the gold medal in the world record time of 8 min 24.625. Less than a bodylength behind her, Michelle Ford, just one year older, recorded Bmin 25.78 s to also go under the world record and claim the silver medal. It was an amazing race between two young swimmers of tremendous ability. In some ways it was reminiscent of the great 1500 m final on the track in the Christchurch Games when both Filbert Bayi and John Walker broke the world record. Both girls contributed to the breaking of the record and Wickham, who led narrowly throughout, could never relax her efforts.

“It is fantastic,” she said afterwards, “I knew I was going to break the world record but I never dreamed it would be by so much.” Behind Wickham and Ford, the tall, blond New Zealand girl, Rebecca Perrott, overtook Joane Litzow (Australia) 200 m from the finish to prevent an Australian clean sweep of the medals. Her time of 8 min 44.87 s broke the New Zealand record by 10s.

This was her second medal of the day. Earlier she finished second in the 200 m medley behind 15-year-old Sharon Davies (England).

Wickham dictated the terms in the 800 m from the start. She passed through the first 100 m in 2min 555, already o.Bs up on a worldrecord schedule. At 400 m she was electronically timed at 4min 14s, a new Games record for this distance. At this stage, she was 3s inside world-record schedule and Ford was right with her. Several times Ford edged up

alongside Wickham but each time she drew away slightly. On the last length, there was little between them, but Wickham had just enough left to win by a bodylength. She set the previous world record of Bmin 30.53 s in the Australian championships in February. Now her aim is to win the world championship in Berlin and improve on her world record.

New Zealand’s finest moment so far in the pool came earlier in the day in the 200 m individual medley. Sharon Davies won the gold medal in a superbly judged race.

However, she was under extreme pressure and losing ground rapidly to Rebecca Perrott and Canada’s worldranked Becky Smith as the race neared its end. Perrott, a 17-year-old veteran of two Commonwealth and one Olympic Games, failed to catch the English girl but beat Smith by a touch. All three swimmers recorded world-class times. Davies was credited with

2min 18.375, slower than the Commonwealth and Games records of 2min 17.82 s she has pending from the heats but inside the existing records, Perrott clipped 2s off her previous best with her time of 2min 18.70, a New Zealand record and also inside the existing Commonwealth and Games records. Smith recorded the same time.

“This shows me I am bet-

ter at the medley than I thought,” Perrott said afterwards. She indicated increasing interest in the event, which she has swum seriously only twice before. “It is a new event for me. I don’t know what I can do.” Nevertheless, the race belonged to Davies, an intelligent girl with her sights set on even bigger things. She led all the way, completing her butterfly leg in

29.555, the backstroke in, Imin 4.285, and the breaststroke in Imin 46.125. Per-' rott was second on the butterfly leg in 29.83 s but lost ground in the breaststroke.

When she started the final, freestyle leg she was in fourth place. She quickly showed she was the fastest in this. She picked off the highly-regarded Australian, Lisa Curry, and, with Smith, started to move up on Davies. The race ended just too soon for both. Perrott claimed the silver medal — the first medal in the swimming for New Zealand —- by a touch.

New Zealand’s three sprinters, Paul Rowe, Brett Naylor, and Barry Salisbury, failed to qualify for the 100 m final. Rowe, the fastest of the trio with 53.635, was particularly unlucky after finishing second in his heat. It was another good day for the host country in the pool. Graham Smith (Canada) recorded the thirdfastest time in the world

this year for the 400 m med-

ley when he touched in the final in 4min 27.345. He took the lead on the breaststroke leg, just holding off a determined Pau] Moorfoot (England) in the freestyle to win the gold medal. Moorfoot recorded 4min 27.7 s for second, and Bill Sawchuk (Canada) claimed the bronze in 4min 27.995. All three bettered the Commonwealth and Games records.

Canada also won the gold medal in the 200 m women’s breaststroke. Lisa Borsholt completely outclassed the field to win in 2min 37.7 s from Debbie Rudd (England). But it was Australia which stole the limelight on the second day of the swimming, Ron McKeon, Graham Brewer, and Mark Morgan took the first three places, respectively, in the men’s 200 m freestyle final. It was the first clean sweep of the Games. Keon broke the Commonwealth record with his time of Imin 52.06 s —- the fastest in the world this year — and the other two were inside the old Games record. It was, perhaps, an indication of even greater things to come from the Australian swimmers in the days ahead.