Real winners not always first

Press, 4 October 1982, Page 26

Real winners not always first

By

JOHN COOMBER,

through NZPA The Canadian swimmers trained for the Commonwealth Games with com-puter-controlled work schedules and multi-million dollar government facilities. . Reginald Maphanga faced a half-hour trek every day to swim. in a tourist spa pool outside Manzini in Swaziland. When' lie'Agot there he couldn’t even swim in a straight line. There were two concrete pools in the middle of it and he had to swim round them. Honeymooners call the pool the "cuddle puddle.”

Reginald Maphanga was delighted to finish twentythird of the 24 starters in the 200 metres freestyle heats: “He beat somebody and that - gave us a great boost in confidence,” said Swaziland's . swim coach, Marissa Rolinick, with charming sincerity. Maphanga, a shy 18-year-old clerk, finished his beat half a minute behind the . supercharged fish from Canada and Australia, but his time took seven seconds from his previous best, and he broke the Swaziland 100metre record along the way. He thinks the recbrd probably cost him a better time

over the full distance. “He went out too fast,” said his coach, Rollnick, “even though he was half a lap behind the field at the 100-metre mark.” The man he beat was Gavin Knipe from St Helena. He was almost lapped in his heat of the four-lap race. When the big, boys were leaning on the. lane dividers discussing their times and . splits Knipe was still battling away to reach the other end of the pool.. His progress down the final 50 metres was less than scorching. The temptation to jump in and rescue him was almost overwhelming. But Knipe made it .in

3:05.?7, some 75 seconds after the leaders hit the timing board. “The competition is not that strong in St Helena,” said the team manager, Brian Yon, who will swim in the 1500 metres tomorrow. The St Helena swimmers spend some of their training time in the harbour. They also can use a 25-metre pool, but they have to share it with everyone else. The three swimmers are the first people in any international sporting competition representing the 8000 souls of St Helena, a tiny outcrop in the middle of the South Atllantir.

It may not quite be the .. world’s most isolated country, but it would get in the final. Ambitions of getting into the swimming final, however, were denied the competitors. The woman swimmer, Caroline Lawrence, was disqualified from her heat of the 100 metres freestyle. It appears she did not undestand the requirements for touching the board before making her turns. The occasion overawed her, as it did the Swazilanders such as Sandra Ncala -, and Nomathemba Matsebula,

- who touched 20-odd seconds too late to make the finWof the women’s 100 Afterwards they sat 'afnd talked on the grass .the Chandler complex, happy as larks. Thejr bus hadn't turned up, ai£ would be considered a major drama, one suspeets/in'certain other teams. \ After hotfr one’ of themiwewlioijpquire. politely if ’ the‘y cbufdget back to-the village<{ s *. :■ ’.The .Tracey Wickhams and Alex Baumanns may:win the GavitL,. Knipes ■4apd s’bmathembas Mhtsebu-