SWIMMING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5665, 12 August 1905, Page 14

SWIMMING.

COLONIAL SWIMMERS AT HOME. KIERAN PROGRAMME. (From Our Special Reporter.) LONDON, June 23. B. B. Kieran, the youthful recordbreaker, cam© to hand safely per the Orient liner Oratava, Inst Saturday, ' together with his mentor, Mr W. H. Mitchell. Barring a rough time off the Australian coast, where the ship was so knocked about that one sailor was killed through an iron door closing on him, and three others injured, the trip Home proved very pleasant, and Kieran landed here as tit a* he could hope to be after six weeks of comparative idleness and shipboard feeding. I At Tilbury he was met by half a > dozen of the great lights of the swimming world —Mr Win. Henry, Hon. See. of the Life Saving Society, whose guest • Kieran will be during his stay ; Mr W. N. Benjamin, President of the A.S.A.; » Mr. Leggatt, Mr. Harry Benjamin, exi President A.S.A.; and Mr. Pilkingtcn, • 'Hon. Trcas. of the Life Savers. Kieran’s first “dip” in Home waters i! vas taken in Highgate Ponds last Suu- ' day morning, and he will probably do most of hits training there for the Mile ; Championship, which will be decided i! there on Saturday week, July Ist. By tine time you receive these lines the race will be history, but it may not be out of place here to remark that, apart from . the question of fitness after so short a , preparation, wc do not expect Kieran , | to show' us anything very startling in , the way of time in Highgate Ponds. There is something about the water at ! Highgate that has heretofore prevented champion swimmers from producing their best times there. What that “something” is I cannot say, but it is ' a solid fact that, although the speediest II men of recent years have all competed ; there, Highgate Ponds has never been j the scene of a record swim. ( After Highgate, Kieran journeys to | Blackpool, where he will compete in the *' King’s Cup races—events in which he is ' j not expected to show his best form, foj the “crawl” is not permitted in that ! event—and then, on July 15, he will take part in the Long-distance Cham- ' pionship in the Thames. This is a raw of over five miles, and at such a distance ' i the Australian is an unknown quantity so far as we on this side are concerned, i Personally, I do not fancy Kieran's '1 chance in this event, if Jarvis is still 1 j on the “wav-path,” and can get fit, and jl think Billington will beat the Austra- • lian, as also may that sturdy “cut-and-■j come-again” veteran, Billy Hawes. Jar-

vis and Hawns know the course as well as they know ihoir way home, wluch is a very but advantage in a river like the Thames, and Ijilliugton has also expert* i once to help hts great speed, Kieran, I of course, will have the best' available advice on the day, and in a measure he i will have become acclimatised to fresh i water swimming. But if Father I Thames is fairly full of fi esh cold hind I water I expect the youngster will find I the best of our homo-bred men too good ! for him.

During his stay, which I understand will extend over 14 weeks. Kioran yill be able to take part in every one of our championships, and a.s the following figures will show he has only to reproduce his Australian times to boat the best of our men (a.s wc know their form at present) to pretty well sweep the board;— r

Kieran's British Amateur Yrds. Times. llecords. 200 2miu Ul 3-ssoc 2unu 20sco

220 2miu 28 3-ssoc . 2miu 28 3-5-oc 410 orain lihco smin 321-ssoc 500 Omni 10 3-ssec Oiuiu 25 2-osec 880 llmin 11 3-sseo lliuiu 50 2-ssec 100') 12min 52 1-lisec llmin lOsoc lMilo23miu 10 4-ssec 24min 50 2-sscc Miss Annette. Kellorman made her debut at the Wo stminister Oaths last Monday evening under the aegis of the Havensbouruo S. (’., and gave an exhibition of her powers in various brunches of the aquatic art. She first displayed her powers in the “Trudgen’!” style over four lengths, and without attempting any great pace die showed that she had a very powerful leg kick. At turning, like most lady ' swimmers I have seen, she has still much to learn. Her display of the under-ann side stroke—which though quite a useful stroke, i.s quite out of fashion these days—was also good, the left arm being splendidly worked from the elbow, and her overt arm side, stroke was equally good. /f length on the side with her arms tier! behind her back was done at a pace that showed that Miss Kellorman does not got any groat power into her arm work. Most interesting of al! her items,' ho wever, was her diving. I have seldom seen a neater exhibition of stand-sitting front-back, somersault, or dolphin diving than the young Australian gave. She entered the water on almost every occasion in a fashion as nearly perfect a« may be. She wound up with a ■’■splosh”.—a not particularly elegant divo in which she falls into the water like a bundle, uttering a shrill “Cooeo” just as she enters the water. There wore several Australian “sports” present at the display, and led by them everybody “cooeed” as Miss Kcllerman reappeared.

I understand that (he young lady, in addition to her proposed Thames swim, really has serious designs on Channel honours. She will be well advised to leave tho emulation of Captain Webb to these of the opposite sex who care to expend much time and money in attempting a Disk that can only bo accomplished by those possessed of an exceptional combination of certain specific physical attributes, and then only under such an association of atmospheric and marine conditions as one can only hope to meet with in the Channel once in a decade.