Hurring to ‘sort out’ turns for 200m

Press, 22 August 1978, Page 28

Hurring to ‘sort out’ turns for 200m

NZPA London t i • Gary Hurring of New Zea- 1 land was disqualified fromh his final of the 100 m backstroke at the world swimming championships in West Berlin yesterday after finishing 1 fourth in the event. The shock disqualification for a faulty turn was an identical decision to that, which ruled him out of the heats of the same event at| the Commonwealth Games: in Fdmonton earlier this i month. There it cost the 17-! year-old Auckland student a chance of a gold medal in an event for which he was[ the favourite. Yes.erday it cost him a! New Zealand record and the satisfaction of having recorded New Zealand’s best eve’ - men’s performance in aworld swimming champion-! ship. Speaking from Berlin, the! New Zealand team manager,: Mr lan Chadwick, told the NZPA: “We could not argue) against it. He did in fact fail' to turn properly.” Hurring’s time of 57.8351 was again inside the newi domestic record, set when his 53.33 s time made him; the fourth fastest qualifer for the final, he said. The rules for backstroke swimming state that competitors must remain on! their backs and touch the! end of the pool with their! hands before flipping into i their turn. Hurring had quite’ clearly failed to touch, Mr! Chadwick said. The disqualification took!

tsome time in coming. Im-ij j mediately after the race he 11 ‘ was posted as fourth on the i i official results board and| was still being listed as j fourth at the medal presen- J tation some 15 minutesi later. t But as the young Aucklan-1 der was going forward with i the other competitors for < the official presentation he 1 i was told by world cham-1 , pionship organisers for the first time that he had been (ruled out. 1 .! “It was a bit embarrassing ’ and a bit confusing," Mr 1 [ Chadwick said. “I think it’s ' i just one of those things that < i result from language diffi-1 ! culties. Gary is very dis- ( appointed without any doubt. But now we’ve got to , ■ have a good look at the sit- ' uation and try and sort it : ,1 out for the 200 m on; (Wednesday.” .- The longer backstroke ; event, in which he won the i , gold medal at Edmonton, is !; considered Hurring’s special-! l|ty and the New Zealand I team wants no repetition of : ;! yesterday’s disqualification. The Californian, Bob Jack- ( i son, won the United States’ (fourth gold medal in the • 100 m backstroke final, just ; stalling off a strong finish ! from his team-mate, Peter Rocca. . i! The 21*year-old Jackson 1 :) finished in a championship’s •! record time of 56.365ec — ! iO.63sec ahead of Rocca. The !) Russian Viktor Kuznetsov ( I was third. I Five years after becoming : I world champions at Bel-

igrade, East Germany’s I women swimmers have run into trouble. At the third world championships in West Berlin yesterday the first two women’s events signalled that much has changed since Belgrade in 1973. Both golds went to the Americans. The Germans from across the Berlin wall had to make do with a silver and a bronze. The star of the day was 15-year-old Tracy Caulkins, from Nashville, Tennessee, with a new world record in the 200 m individual medley of 2min 14.075ec, and a second gold in the 4 x 100 m medley relay. With the diving and three ’ opening men’s events included, the Americans ended the ■ first day’s swimming with five golds, three silvers and a bronze. West Germany, with victory in the men’s ( 100 m breaststroke, also netted a gold. j Bill Forrester rocketed the [ United States away to a ‘ great start when he won the 200 m freestyle final in a championship’s record time of Imin 51.025ec. Undoubtedly the most popular win of the night was the victory of the West German. Walter Kusch, in the final of the 100 m men’s breaststroke. In a gripping finish Kusch, urged on by a large home crowd stalled off the Commonwealth Games multi-gold medallist, Graham Smith, of Canada.