SWIMMING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 25 March 1922, Page 2

SWIMMING.

(By "Surf.'")

Last Tuesday the Hawera Club held a club evening in anything but encouraging weather. In all, four handicaps were decided—one distance for the Senior Cup, two distances for the" Junior Cup, and one distance for the Novice Cup. The junior and novice races drew good fields, but the Senior Cup. race emphasised only too plainly the present dearth of senior distance swimmers in Hawera. With so many young swimmers growing up in Hawera, the local club could safely mdVe many of the "colts' 1 up a grade next season. If this were don© the Senior Cup would prove a much more interesting competition, and the move need not necessarily reduce the fields in the junior and novice competitions.

At the Hawera Technical High School sports on the loth inst. there were at least ten boys competing who should perform creditably in"next season's competition for the Novice Cup. There are also many other boys attending the baths regularly during the warm weather, and they, too, should be quite capable of filling the vacancies that would be caused by promoting some of the best junior swimmers.

With one more distance to be swum in each cup competition, the point scores read as follows: —Senior Cud : G. Foden 13, Barrett 8, Poison 5 Junior Cup: F. Grant 10. Henson 7 3 Ryan 7, Foster 3, Powdrell 3. Novice Cup: Barron 5, Wilson 5, GHffen 5,, Matthews 2, A. Powdrell 1.

The local club has made application to the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association on behalf of some thirty school children for certificates for distance swimming. All those qualifying haled from the Hawera Public School, and a glance through the list showed many really good performances. Having swum a distance of 950 yards, Kenneth Barron headed the list, while the other performances ranged from 100 yards to half a mile.

Frank Beaurepaire still continues to break Australian records. This week he added three more to his long list. Beaurepaire won the one mile AusI tralian championship in the record time of 23mm 49 2-osee, and also established two new open water records by covermo; 1000 yards in 13min 26 3-ssec, and 1500 metres in 22min 25 3-ssec. Beaurepaire, although still'capable of breaking Australian records, *is by no means a young swimmer. As far back as 1910, while on a visit to England, he established a world's record of 3min 50 1-5 sec for 300 metres, and to-day the figure still stands unbeaten.

However untimely, it is apparent that the recent weather conditions have brought swimming activities to a definite close. With next Saturday's edition "Surf" will cease his "weekly murmurings" until the warmer sunshine of nest season calls for more swimming— and more "murmurings."