Canterbury record disallowed

Press, 7 December 1981, Page 22

Canterbury record disallowed

Three new Canterbury records, one of them the oldest in the record book, were broken at a senior swimming carnival at Queen Elizabeth II Park on Saturday evening. A fourth record was bettered but unfortunately 10-year-old Shane Ellison (Wharenui) will be unable to claim it. Ellison, after initially being told he had broken the record, was later informed that it could not be ratified because only two qualified time-keepers were on his lane. Canterbury centre rules state that there must be three time-keepers on the lane. That there were insufficient time-keepers was not the fault of the Canterbury centre. It has a difficult task enticing officials to carnivals to time-keep. Ellison will get another chance to better the record next Saturday in the national Speedo teleprinter finals. The competition and atmosphere will also be more conducive to breaking the record than they were last Saturday. The record Ellison bettered was in the 10 years 100 m backstroke. His time Imin 26.5 s was 0.5 s inside the record held by Michael Bouwmeester and set a year ago. Bouwmeester (Wharenui) was one of the lucky two swimmers

who had sufficient time-keepeers on his lane and was able to claim the two records he bettered. The first was in the boys 11 years 200 m backstroke. Bouwmeester covered the distance in 2min 52.0 s taking 3.7 s off the old time set by the talented Kara Taumaunu five years ago. Bouwmeester’s second record came in the 200 m individual medley, and as he did in the backstroke, he shattered the time, taking 2.9 s off the old mark of 2min 53.75, and held jointly by Eddie Box and Grant Forbes. Box set the record in 1971 and Forbes equalled it in 1975. The swim is a good omen for Bouwmeester who will swim the medley at the teleprinter finals next week-end. He will start that race with the knowledge that his swim on Saturday was 7.2 s better than the winning time in the finals a year ago. Brett Lyons (New Brighton) had the distinction of breaking the oldest record in the book. It was the boys 12 years 200 m individual medley set almost 12 years ago by Jimmy Carter, a former Wharenui swimmer who later represented Scotland at Commonwealth Games and Great Britain at the Olympics.

The record was set on January 29. 1970. Lyons’ time last evening was 2min 39.45. 0.7 s inside the record. Times recorded by the older competitors were in several cases well below their best, but the swimmers should improve next week-end when several of them will compete against the Queensland team in a carnival at

Queen Elizabeth II Park. Grant Forbes (Wharenui) returned his usual creditable time in the 100 m breaststroke — lmin 11.75. Nicola Chambers (Wharenui) came within o.ls of her best 200 m butterfly time recording 2min 29.05, and Liza Chamberlain (New Brighton) was only 0.7 s off her best in the 100 m freestyle with a smart time of lmin 4.65.