Record swimming entries

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 32

Record swimming entries

By

KEVIN TUTTY

The absence of six of the Commonwealth Games swimming team from the national championships at Queen Elizabeth II Park next week, will be adequately compensated for by a record number of entries and two talented teams from Queensland and Victoria.

Swimming officials have been taken by surprise by the record entry. Normally the year after a Commonwealth or Olympic Games, entries regress, but this year the entry is 748 — the first time it has passed 600.

Entries from the Australian contingent have boosted the numbers, but there are still 60 more entries from New Zealand competitors than there were last season.

Those Games swimmers who will not compete are Murray Parker, Mark Kalaugher, Barry Salisbury, Kim Dewar, Melanie Jones and Megan Tohili. Kalaugher is at university in Hawaii; Salisbury and Parker have retired; Miss Jones has given away international swimming but is still pursuing the sport with the growing ranks of masters swimmers; and Misses Dewar and Tohili are recovering from illness diagnosed after their return from Brisbane. The reason for the increase in entries is apparently a rub-off of a coaching programme which the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association and coaches have pursued in the last couple of years. It has included coaching clinics for leading age-

groupers, and the entry of New Zealand teams at the Australian age-group championships. A notable entry is Rebecca Williams, known to most as Rebecca Perrott. She is now married but will contest five events at the championships which start on Wednesday. The national diving titles start on Tuesday. In her hey day Mrs Williams was one of the top freestyle sprinters in the world. Her national 100 m record of 57.6 s would still be a world-class time. No other New Zealand woman has come near the record. She is the only New Zealander to have broken a minute in a long-course pool. The ingredients will be there for either Pam Croad (Manawatu) or Jennifer

Queen (Canterbury) to break the minute barrier next week. They will be swimming against Angela Russell, a superb sprinter who could be a contender for a medal at the Olympics in Los Angeles next year. The long-distance freestyle events have received much greater support this year, particularly the men’s 1500 m freestyle and the women’s 800 m freestyle. The monthly long-distance freestyle ranking events which have been running since last June have encouraged more swimmers to tackle what were becoming ignored events. The most popular event is the women's 100 m freestyle with 51 entries. That will require seven heats. Most events have at least three heats, so the morning ses-

sions at the championships are likely to be lengthy.

Two Australians will be permitted in each final and consolation final, so the fight for places in the finals among the New Zealand competitors will be intense. Coaches and administrators are hoping the intensity will bring a spate of newcomers to the forefront of the sport. Diving will provide as much interest as the swimming. New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Mark Graham, has been diving superbly in recent weeks. He will be opposed on the three metre springboard by the Australian, Nathan Mead, who will be attempting to qualify for the F.I.NA World Cup in Texas in April.