Boy aged 14 swims strait

Press, 22 February 1982, Page 6

Boy aged 14 swims strait

PA Wellington Wayne Jack aged 14, of Napier, yesterday became the youngest person to swim Cook Strait. He only just completed the swim. Exhausted, he almost gave up only a few hundred metres away from his goal. Attempting the difficult north to south crossing, Wayne Jack left Ohau Point at 8.46 a.m. and reached the South Island 10 hours and two minutes later. It was the fifth fastest north to south crossing. Wayne Jack usurps Meda McKenzie now Meda Sweetman, as the youngest person to swim the strait. A fifthform pupil at Tamatea High School, he had trained for the swim for the last four months. He was trained by the long-distance swimmer,. John Coutts. He has swum competitively for the last six years and took up surf lifesaving early this season. Coutts and Wayne Jack

waited a week for the weather to be right before attempting the swim. They were determined to carry it out at the week-end, or they would have had to wait a month until the tides were suitable again. By then, Wayne Jack would have been 15.. He swath the first five kilometres yesterday in about 80 minutes but had to fight off. exhaustion during the last eight kilometres.