SWIMMING.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 14 October 1922, Page 4

SWIMMING.

The local club are holding their annual meeting on Tuesday next, and it is hoped that a large attendance of members will be present and a goodlyaccession of new members to the ranks. The sport is good from every point of ■vievf and of distinct practical value to the community. Many a life has been saved by a knowledge of the art on the ! part of a person in danger at sea or on river, or on the part of an onlooker j who, besides knowing how to swim I has been taught the art of life-saving i We hope that the club will take up and support energetically the project that was set on foot last year of a Life- I say Club. With an ever increasing ! number of people going to the Wai-' ngongoro beach and river, and with the

early prospect of another beach being opened up, the need for the club is only too apparent. A visit from an outside club from an older established centre, such as took place a couple of years ago, would give a distinct' impetus to the club. In some respects (says an exchange) Pauline Hoeft is the most remarkable swimmer that New Zealand has produced. No other girl in New Zealand, or in any other part of the British Empire, has credited herself with such startling performances as Pauline put up last year, when., coming suddenly to the forefront,* she shati tered records in a sensational manner, and registered some wonderful times, Pauline, at the" last New Zealand

' championships, displayed one or two faults that made her swims, remarkable though they were, slower than good judges considered she was capable of. But for a very v noticeable fault at starting it is quite probable that in the 50yds open scratch race, ; in which she competed, she would have j beaten the speediest of the male swimi mers. Pauline served a lengthy apprenticeship in. the "near-champion" class, playing third-place-getter to the firsts and seconds of Gwitha Shand and Violet Walrond on many occasions,, and taking her beatings with the best of good cheer. The deservedly popular tViolet Jwas her. \heroine—-jf "Vi" j won, it was good enough for Pauline. j Then Gwitha Shand made the big iin- ' provemerit that resulted in her sweeping the board at Dunedin a couple of , years ago. The Olympic representaI tive had failed to improve, and th<» j supremacy passed easily to Canterbury. ! But last year Pauline Hoeft challenged it- Jin dramatic fashion. Her wonderful sprinting achievements at the last championships gave Gwitha Shand jno chance. In the quarter-mile event ' the Canterbury girl proved still incomparable, but Pauline made a great I fight for the dual, crown. Pauline 'Hqeft's first appearance in championship contests was made in' 1919, when she failed to get a place in the ladies' I 100 yds championship, the event that j saw the defeat of Dorothy Farquhar •by Gwitha Shand. At the same meeting Pauline swam second (to Gwitha ] Shand) in the 100 yds girls' intermedi i .ate championship, but was unplaced in the 75yds event. In the following year—the year that saw Violet Walrond defeat all, comers- -Pauline's only > placing was a third in the 100 yd girls' intermediate championship. Last year -at Dunedin —Gwitha Shand's year— Pauline paddled on behind while Shand and Walrond fought put their famous battles. . She was unplaced '"in the senior events, was second in the 75yds girls' intermediate event, and third in the hundred. Early this year, in Wellington, Pauline came at last- into her own in a. blaze of glory surpassing . that of any earlier champion. Her , victory in £he 100 yds championship wa| as convincing as,any at the meeting. None could respond to her remarkable pace, and she shattered the record by a big margin. Though beaten in the quarter-mile in a grim j race as the championships have ever produced, she crossed the line behind gwitha Shand in better time than 6.30, the old world's record." Before the swimming season fended PaJuline had regxstered the, following times (not all of _them under conditions which permitted of their being recognised .as record^):' — . ■ ! JOOyds .... ... ... 64 JS ? etres • - '74'1-S 150 yds ... icn 220yd5... .;. ;;; - 952 440 yds ... ... ... ... 6.25