COOK STRAIT SWIM

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 91, 11 January 1929, Page 11

COOK STRAIT SWIM

TRAINING WORK AT LYTTELTON Miss Lily Coppiestone, of Ashburton, who will make an attempt to swim Cook Strait on January 10, is steadily fitting herself for the big job she has on hand. In a letter to Mr. P. Coira ; North Island representative of the New Zealand Swimming Association, Miss Copplestone states that she has been putting in the week-ends training in Lyttelton harbour, and recently swam across that harbour from Diamond Head to Corsair Bay. . Miss Coppiestone will arrive m M ellington to-day week. and. if the weather proves fine, will leave next day in a launch to study the course she will have to travel. If conditions are favourable on January 19, Miss Coppiestone will set out on her long swim from Cape Koamani. at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound, at 2.30 o’clock that morning. The plucky girl swimmer is leaving no stone unturned to fit herself for the stern task of crossing the Strait, and thus accomplishing what no male swimmer- has yet been able to do. Miss Coppiestone is a strong swimmer, and everyone interested in the pastime knows that she will make a determined effort to conquer the Strait. Experienced swimmers, however, declare that the worst obstacle the Ashburton girl will meet on her journey will be the intense coldness of the water, which defeated Webster, the Auckland swimmer, when he attempted to swim across Cook Strait from the North Island side in February last. It is well known, however, that women can stand cold much better than men, and, if the currents should behave themselves on January 19, a New Zealand Venus may arise from the waters of the Strait' on the North Island side, with high laurels crowning her brow in the form of brown seaweed.