‘Winkie’ Griffin M. Games Hope

Northern Advocate, 18 February 1949, Page 5

‘Winkie’ Griffin M. Games Hope

NAPIER, Fri. (P.A.).—By beating the national ladies’ senior record in winning the New Zealand junior .girls’ 220 yards swimming championship at Napier last night, Miss Winifred Griffin, of Ohaeawai, stamped herself as* the country’s outstanding prospect at the Empire Games in Auckland next year'. Miss Griffin’s time was 2.39 1-5, which was 4-ssec. better than the senior record set up 12 years ago by Miss I. Purdie (Otago). Miss Griffin clipped 2 3-ssec. off the national junior record which she established herself in. her heat in the morning.

“Winkie,” as she is popularly known in the North, is IS and comes from a sporting family. She first came ■ into the limelight when she won the Auckland tiny tots title over 33 1-3 yards at the age of 11. She won this event the following year and since then has been a regular competitor, a keen student of the sport and an ambitious young swimmer.

In 1945-46 she won her first Auckland junior title over 50 yards, and the following season was successful.in the 50 and 100 yards. “ She then won the New Zeaand 50 yards junior title at Invercargill and was beaten in the 100 yards by a touch. Her performances earned for her a wide reputation and her latest success is not surprising. There were no championships last season on account of the polio epidemic. At the close of the last school year, “Winkie” travelled to Hamilton for serious coaching by R. B. Frankham. ex-New Zealand free-style champion. COACHING, TRAINING Over Christmas, she visited Christchurch with the Empire Games trainees for more serious training and coaching, and in her only race was beaten by Misses B. Casey and R. Hatchwell over 100 yards. Success at the Auckland junior championships this season was easy for her and she appears to be a class above any other junior in the country at most distances. At home, she trains in the Ohaeawai Pool, which is in a creek. Swimming against the current she claims strengthens her stroke. When she is really fit, she swims against a harness held on the bank by her mother.

She is a pupil at Northland College, Kaikohe.