SWIMMING

NZ Truth, Issue 507, 6 March 1915, Page 12

SWIMMING

i : ♦— r~ ... (By J "Sirena.") DUKE -PAOA KAHANAMOKU. •*-"- 'Good Sport at Dunedin.

j Judging by the crowd and the rejmarkable interest, taken m every event, j the- most graceful of. the athletic arts seems, to. be, in a very safe state m the dour. city. ; .Last Friday, "Truth" paid a visit to; the great pool . at the municipal baths, and had a look on, at the various handicaps and exhibitions. The big attractions wero Duke Kahanamoku, the renowned Hawaiian, and his genial little pacer, George Cunha. The "dook" looks more set, cool and spare than m his "native" days, and occasionally he disclosed a body teeming with nerves. Of course he is champion of the world now, yet withal, no swimmer m the past, and we have had shoals ' of 'em, wears his laurels so nonchalantly and beflttingly. "Sirena" has had the pleasure of seeing good old Austral "Bogie" Beaurepalre, Billington, Burgess, Miss Kellerman and hosts of "batalliers" of the Yankee and Latin fraternity—all of whom were great people and are so still. Some specialised m speed, channel swimming and diving, but they, were all graceful and champions of a kind. We have seen . the "dpok" before m other days and under sunnier but less favorable skies, when he revelled m the hot spray and limpid wavelets of his shimmering wastes, and we think it is only there that Kahanamoku shines. He is certainly a more robust and accomplished water fiend than "Bogie;" or any other we have seen, but last j Friday he did not vindicate what is m liim. Climatic conditions without, and the congested and enervating situation within, the baths were obviously very real reasons to make any champion cautious. Then when he had the pool to himself, the water was so deplorably muddy looking that the limb movement , and body turns of the swimmer were ' completely obscured. This is a serious defect m a pool, and should.be remedied for many weighty reasons apart from; the few specified. Otherwise tho baths are most up-to-date, and the municipal 1 people have to bo. congratulated" on this head. On both eVenirigs the Duke only appeared m the finals of the inter- club events. (100 yards). Kahanamoku -is "the" champion, and a professional, consequently he knows his biz., and he 'was .very. -wise m sticking to.it m Dunedin. We have heard and read a lot about the Duke's feats,, and records since coming to our isles, but, under the circumstances- these "records" . are commonplace things, The .times hare been lowered after a manner, but the absence of scratch" event's settles these. Consequently, Duke Kahanamoku is merely on-, an' exhibition tour. It, .discloses to -our aspirants the toned, art of the fastest swimmer. He may not be the moat graceful, but his speed and vigor, the tone essentials, are remarkable. The Duke's style is robust, precise and truly sea- worthy. In the Austral crawl, and what.he terms his own adaptation of the same, his most vigorous and dexterous styles are displayed. But after seeing his, I prefer the good old Austral crawl. The eyeopener of the evening was his ..exhibition of back swimming— truly graceful, fast and original. His style on the back Is unique and singularly conducive to a high rate of speed. He swam low, noiselessly and with no apparent effort on the breast. George Cunha, the sleek brown boy's pacer, is a neat, genial littlo man, with any amount of youth, sunshine, pluck and life about him. Like his big brother he went very well, but we did not Bee his best. 'Twas good to meet such fine sports at the head of the tournament m Messrs. Bannatyne, Kllmartin,' Isaacs, Cannon and James. Messrs. Mitchell, Given, Mathews, Park, Dallas, Patterson and the others proved themselves very keen and precise conductors of a big carnival. Dan Bannatyne refereed, and gave IS-carat satisfaction. The Judges. Messrs. Park. Dallas, Mclndooe and Roberts were good and energetic, but might* be more efficient Judges should be picked, not because they are great and good sports, but because their knowledge of the art is all but perfect. Some four judges last Friday lacked a little. The starting on the part of the starter, Mr. W. H. Mathews, was singularly good. The handicapping was quite satisfactory, and did actually ? bring out what was reliable. Mr. J. A. ' Kilmurtin achieved this. Good old Joe j Isaacs was keeping time. The right ! men In the right places — courteous, enj ergetlc and exact, were Messrs. Mlt- ! chell. Given. .Cannon and James. Mr. j Arthur Cannon was tho busiest of men, but when Arthur is busy he has ali ways timo to be- genial and obliging. 'On. the whole the carnival oilleials •j might be equalled but scarcely excelled. ' The various event/* were made the . rules of the X.Z.A.5.0., and wero well j got through to time. Tho first heat of the Inter-Club Handicap, 100 .'yards, gavo H, Madigan (25 sees) tho win. A Jones (16secs.) was the actual winner, hut was disqualified for' starting before his time. This afforded E. T. Dawson (lOsccs.) second . place. Nevertheless .Tones swam a dej cent raco. Tho second heat saw M. B. | Miller (lSsees.) final, first, with T. T. j Tumor second. i ., 'Ji\ the final, heavily handicapped but

fresh, the Duke and Cunha ''stood on their' towels." The pace was strenuous and interesting, but the Duke did It precisely and with ease, Cunha second, and a promising young local swimmer m H. Madigan, third. . In this event the Duke put up new time for New Zealand— s7secs., which settled what he did m Christchurch arfd Timaru by 2 seconds. Tho Inter-Club Dash Handicap, of 33 1-3 yards, W. H. Isaacs, . (lOsecs.,) easily won the initial heat, with E. T. Dawson (4secs.) a strong swimmer, R B Whceley (7secs.) In 23min., which was neat, with M. B. Miller a safe second. Cunha came out m the final, but the Duko did not. The wee pacer had to give away too much time, but all the same he rattled well m, finishing a dangerous second behind N. Isaacs. The diving was very easily W. W. Crawford's strong line. Crawford is an ex- N.Z. champ, and will shortly figure m the professional ranks. The junior competitions were well contested and produced winners who augur well for the future. One can say also that the Breast Stroke event was well contested, but nothing more. The ladies did tl»-ir part very well and fought matters out with great •/.est. All the same, while admiring the grace, smoothness, and honesty of their efforts, it would be idle to say that any that swam, plunged and dived on iast Friday will develop anything near champion form. It was good carnival form we saw, and that was good enough. In this the Misses Willson. Millar. Turner, and Sparrow especially appealed t* ( discerning eyes. Just a finishing touch on the Duke— the world's fastest and most remarkable swimmer. In 1911 ho came to tho front m breaking the world's record at Honolulu for the 100 yds. In the following year he went to see I'nelo Sam at homo, where he topped the rcost m grand style; so much so that he waa taken up. fitted out. paid handsomely after the manner of F. Sam. and sent lo represent him at the Oylmpic Games at Stockholm. At Stockholm Duke Para burst, upon the athletic world as "the marvel." Ho there secured tho 100 metres at t'>- 2-ssocs, reducing this afterwards ln Hamburg, before an immense crowd, to 01 l-ssecs. Well and worthily did Kahanamoku represent and signalise the star-spangled banner. Since then be has been reducing and smashing records wholesale. The Duke is lift In height, weighs l?,st, and is 21 years of age. Ah a num. tho man of the ancient Greeks and Romans, he is perfect.