SWIMMING

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 February 1927, Page 10

SWIMMING

CURRENT TOPICS

TO-DAY”S CHAMPIONSHIPS,

(Notes by “Narwhal.”)

With good entries and keen enthusiasm ruling, the championships of the Taranaki Swimming Centre being held at New Plymouth to-day have aroused widespread interest, throughout the province. The Hawera Club nominees comprise a worthy contingent, which includes Miss Phyllis Brant, the present lady champion, who has entered for the .100 and 220 yards free style events, and Miss Myra Jackson, the present 50 yards junior girls’ champion, who is entered in the 50 yards and 75 yards junior girls’ championships and also the junior dive. Miss Zelda Spragg has also nominated for the junior girls’ 50 yards. Among the men contestants, the club will miss F. W. Grant, the 100 yards and 220 yards title holder, whose 100 yards performance last year set the existing record of 07soc. The club’s nominee for the 100 yards is P. O. Venlc, who may bo depended upon to give a good account of himself in this event, though he prefers the breaststroke and has entered for the .150 yards and 220 yards in that style. R. Sage, "who finished third .in the 220 yards at last week’s carnival, has entered for the senior free style championship over that distance, and C. Dowdle, who made a fair bid, but had to retire in the last lap of the carnival event, is also nominated. The club representative in the halfmile is A. Walker who, though not at the top of his form, should make a good race if he appears in the line up. A. Spragg, who secured second place to Gowan, of Wanganui, in the open 220 yards at the Hawera carnival, is to represent the chib in the intermediate 100, 220 and 440 yards, and should show out best over the middle distance.

In the handicap events, the club nominees include Mrs P. O. Veale in the 33 1-3 yards ladies’ inter-club event and the Misses Myra Jackson and Zelda Spragg among the listed candidates for the junior girls event of the same distance.

Entrants for the club in the men’s 50 yards intor-elub handicap contest are *P. O. Veale, J. A. Davenport, C. Dowdle, and R. Sage. The result of the efforts of the club nominees is being awaited with much interest locally, but whether successful or not they may be depended upon to uphold worthily the traditions of sportsmanship associated with the code. CHARLTON’S BRILLIANT 440 YARDS. The quarter-mile effort of Andrew M. (“Boy”) Charlton, with which he won the N.S.W. championship on January 12, has been cited by Australian critics as probably the most brilliant 440 yards swim ever covered by man. Notwithstanding that Arne Borg holds the world’s record at 4min 52 3-ssee, Charlton’s time of 4min 59 4-ssec is regarded as potentially the best ever established, as his swim was accomplished in the Sydney Domain baths in four laps of 110 yards, whereas Borg, when he established the record at Stockholm in September, 1925, swam in a 25 yards pool giving the benefit of 17 turns as against only three in the Sydney baths. It is considered by experts that a turn benefits the practised swimmer to the extent of one second. Calculated thus Borg’s 440 yards in a 110 yards bath would work out at smin 6 3-ssce, while, if Charlton had had the benefit of the extra 14 turns the seconds in his time should have been well below 50. DOLLAR LANGUAGE. Money talks, and the world moves in Yankeeland. The 17-year-old Toronto boy, George Young, who won a raee of 22 miles at Catalina during January, is reported to have signed vaudeville and cinema contracts which will provide a salary of £40,000 for him this year.