Queensland girl wins two golds

Press, 30 January 1981, Page 4

Queensland girl wins two golds

I.Ua Currx. an hS xear ohi. non) Queensland. scooped bo?n women's events al ll;e fourth session of the New Zealand (James swinurdnif at Queen hli/a brth 11 Park evening Better known as a bi oke swimnwr. Curry showed tremendous \er>.ui’it\ all tb.e to win the 2uom individuai, medle>. About 30 minutes iater she was in the pool again to win the plaque m the 100 m buttet rtv. and from supposedly the slower of the two rates’. M's,< Cut :v and her team-mate. Michelle Ford, took the first and secund in the butterth. Miss Ford also in the nr<t exent. chased Miss Currx and xvas fractionally behind her at the nni.sh. The second x\ omen’s buileiriy race might haxe been slower, but not by much, and it pro -luced the most rousing finish of the exerting. In a blanker finish, the first s»x x\ ere w irlr’n a second of each other It xvuuld have been a iudso’s but for the mave’s of electronic ttminu whi-. h separates the sv. immers to a thousandth of a second Heather St’.anv. the 14-vear-old Ame”.h*an freesMler. who stole th»* §n’d ?xla<n'e in the ItlOm freest vie on T.te<das from ’ane eiitht. almost did »’>♦• same frc.ni lane spvmr last nisht. She sneaked up on the earh’ leaders a» tire turn and < ame out of it with a narrow ad'antaee i She hidged her pace nice’v main-, gaining a lead of a matter of: 'inches oxer the final length. .Her time, hnm .VBssee. took ithird Place behind the txxo Australians. S'ie Habernigg finished second ; tn Strana. and after a slow start.' • New Zealand’s Rebecca Perrott burst through the final 25m for third place. Megan Tohill.! another New Zealander, fought • sam*’ly with an injured leg to; fin'sh fifth. In the medley Miss Curry, battled with the New Zealand' girl. Rickie Binning for the; iV-st three lengths. Over the; final few metres of the freestyle ! leg. Miss Binning had to give way to the fast Canadian ! sprinter. Carol Klimpel. Missj Curry swam a strong freestyle j , leg and there was no way Miss i , Klimpel. who conceded Miss i ] Curry two lengths at th* start' i

ii of the freest* le leg. was going i catch the Australian. i Alex Baumann (Canada! won t his second gold plaque with a .mart performance in the men's 2 l| iim baikstroke. An Australian ‘ it..hard Cahalan took the field I tinmish the IP'lm at a fast -o, f , ■ but the smooth stroking Ban! ' nu-nn slowly mined up to him. - and moi ecl auaj in the final ’ when challenged by another ' Australian. Paul Mootfocv and the Swedes. Michael Soedeiittnd ' and Bengt Baron. Mark Graham gave the New Zealand team ami the smattering of spec tators. a pleasant ' surpri-e when lie finished at the - head of the field after the compulsoti lines in the men's threemetre toner at Queen Elizabeth II Park last evening. In the first round Gra’-am had the best leturn of the nine clivers, but there were lew vho expected him to sustain the effort. After the third of the -five toiin.-ls Graham had slipped ba-k to third. In the fourth round he moved back to second ami with a superb dive In the final rourd, ,i forward dive with half twist,' be edged ahead of the Chinese diver Zeng Xilong. Xilmig appeared to have a respectable linal dive but tbg . iretges marks ranged considerably— be - ween five and eight of a possible lb—am' i-e finished second behind Graham. Results: MEN 200 m backstroke A. Baumann iCan.l, 2:05.89, jP. Moorfoot iAust.l. 2:07.2,t.' 2-’ .If. Soederltind tSvve.l, 2.07.84, J-’ ;B. Baron iSwe.i. 2:08.08, 4; r’. [Cahalan (Austl, 2:08.89. 5. 3m springboard : M. Graham cN.Z.i, 209 10 points. 1; Z. Xilong (China!, . 200.60, 2; K. -Machnenver ’U.S.A.) , and J. Weidong (China), 199.55 i equal 3; D. Doerr (Ger.), 195.55 j WOMEN 200 m individual medlev L. Curry (Aust.), 2:21.67,’ 1; C. Klimpel iCan.i, 2:22.78, 2;’ r' Binning I.N.Z.i, 2:23.21, 3; Rodahl (N.z.l. 2:24.33,’ 4; Smith (U.S.A.!, 2:24.84, 5. 100 m butterfly L. Curry (Aust.l, 1:03.55, v M. Ford (Aust.l, 1.03.74, 2; IL Strang (U.S.A.!. 1:03.85. 3; S;. Ilaberntge (U.S.A ), 1:04.14, 4; K. Perrott (N.Z.). 1:04.33, 5..