FINE PERFORMANCES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 26, 31 January 1924, Page 11

FINE PERFORMANCES

WANGANUI CHAMPIONSHIPS

HERD CUTS DOWN -A BECORD,

<»I TW.IQBAPH;—SPECIAL TO THIS POST.) WANQANUI, 30tk January. Heavy rain fell during the afternoon of the third day of the national championship swimming tournament, but had ceased when the proceedings commenced. The accommodation at tile baths was packed for the first time, and some excellent racing was witnessed. The spec-' tators were placed on good terms with themselves when a local lad, Boyd, won the' first event of the evening. Herd's swim in the men's breaststtoke championship was a wonderful perform-1 ance, and in' breaking the record he. fully established a claim as an Olympic . representative. Several heats were de- j cided in the morning, in which Fitch j gained; second place in his heat in the boys' 440yds, but was' beaten fairly ; comfortably by Cameron at the finish. | Bridsop won the first heat in easy fashion in good time. - Bliss Breen was opposed to .same .good _ swimmers ill her ' heat of, the'Junior Girls' 100 yards, and < could not qualify for the final. • The! Senior Bveaststroke heats pdoved two" good contests... --In the first-heat thelocal entrant, Bolton, was the popular fancy, and although Lewis was the ! leader at ,the half-way mark, Bolton j soon forged to the front, and although Lewis and Crooks made big effort's, they finished in that order, eight yards behind Bolton. With Herd engaged in the second |heat it was not 3xpected that Claridge would win. The Canterbury man went to .the front from the starting dive, and was never afterwards headed, and he won in an easy manner, incidentally clipping one-fifth of a second off the record. Claridge .was not all out to gain second place. In the first heat of the mile,-Claridge took the leadat'the start, but was headed by Bradley, who opened up a good lead from Atkinson, Claridge, and Cunnold. At 300 yards Atkinson went after the leader, and at the quar-ter-mile was a yard behind, while Claridge was ten yards back, closely followed by Curftiold. .Over the next two laps Atkinson went to the front, and gradually iri'crpsing his' lead at each turn, he "touched first, twenty yards .in front of Bradley, who was a'similar distance in front of Cunnold.' : Claridge dropped out at 660 yards. , All the starters were together over the first hundred of the second-heat, after which Hill was the leader, from Batchelor, Enwright,' and Murrell. At the half distance,'. Hill was two yards in front of Bachelor, who had a break.pf six yards on' Enwright, with Jlufrel! dropping back: : When. 600 yards, had been covered, Hill and Batcllelor were comfortably in front, and were only swimming for places,, which they eventually filled twenty yards in front of En"wright, Murrell being fifty yards away. The pace was not fast. The first event of .importance .in the . evening ■, .was the 100yds Intermediate GJrls'fvG,harnpionship, which, was ;a great': race^Mth'Pa slashing finish'.' ■. Miss Jeri-.. sop took the lead right from the start, ■ with Misses--Beir,; Page, and Farquhar together six inches behind. At half way Miss Jepson was a foot in front, and although J\lis3 Bell and'Miss Page yera swimming- desperately, they could not catch the Otago girl, who maintained her advantage to the post, amidst great excitement, the other, tw.o being ,a dead heat. ' •"'■ : ■'■" -• '' ' ' •'■ ' „ The final of the men's breasjtstroke was what the public were looking for, Bolton, of Wanganui, being considered a worthy opponent of Herd. From a good start Claridge went away, and led the field at a merry pace ovei the three laps; but at the hundred yards Herd took the lead from Lewis, Claridg'e.and Bolton. This part was covered in 77 4-ssec. _ Over the next two laps Herd was swimming brilliantly, and increased his lead to five yards, Bolton being next, just in front of Lewis/ Clari'dge now dropped out. '.The leader still kept up a great pace, and was obviously out after a record. Racing over the last stretch, he finished strongly, and touched the rope eight yards'ahead of Lewis, who caught Bolton at the final turn, and beat Him home by two yards. The time is easily a New Zealand record, chop-, ping 2 l-ssec off Atkinson's previous best. He should further reduce this on Saturday. Tlie junior boys' 440yds final was a good race 'between Bridson and Cameron for most of the journey, and it was only Bridson's superior stamina that enabled him to win. At half-way Bridson was a yard in front of Cameron, and Fitch was ten yards away. Over the succeeding .laps Bridson increased his advantage, and won by ten yards; Fitch being about fifteen yards behind Cameron. The Wellington boy swam a fine race for his first champion2hip appearance. . The withdrawal of Batchelor from the final of the men's 880yds' robbed the race of a good-deal of its interest, in his heat he was well within himself, and he seemed to have a big chance of success. Atkinson, Hill, and Bradley were the starters, and broke the water evenly. 'In the early stages of the race the competitors were all together, but with 300 yards gone Atkinson was in front, and going well. Hill was two yards away, just ahead of ' Bradley. When 600 yards, was reached Atkinson had fifteen yards to the good, while Hill had left Bradley six yards behind. The leader further increased his lead over the remaining lengths, .and won easily by thirty yards from Hill, who beat Bradley by fifteen yards. The winner has now. added ' the half-mile and mile championships to a, long list of successes. ' Miss Shand had no difficulty in winning the-ladies' 440yds, as -her "time shows. "Miss Stockley swam a plucky race, and so did Miss Fisher, but neither could extend the champion, 'who is swimming wonderfully .well. Wellington and Canterbury played off their drawn game of water polo to decide who would play Auckland for the final. Play , was of a very even nature for a start, with Wellington pressing, but from, a good rally Canterbury scored first, and kept to this advantage until half-time: ? In the second spell j Wellington attacked early, but Murrell i missed the shot. Canterbury now got going and made a , fierce attack, but nothing ■resulted, Claridge in goal defendinc; well: Play moved up and down fast, and after a good solo effort Sutherland added another goal for Canterbury. Time was now getting near, and although Wellington tried hard to ' score, the Canterbury, defence, was too ! good, and the game finished 2-0. Ed- | wards, Shannon, and Claridge played j best. The Shield points so far are as follow : —Senior : Canterbury 46, Auckland 20, Hawkes Bay 6, Wellington 4, Otago l 3, Wanganui 2. Junior : Auckland 3 j Otago 3, Canterbury .2, South Canterbury 2, Wanganui 2, Hawkes Bay 1.