SWIMMING

NZ Truth, Issue 890, 16 December 1922, Page 9

SWIMMING

'Canterbury Classifies Swimmers f THE SYDNEY SYSTEM. II; , Dick Cavill;,; ln Wellington.. I ■ i (By "PLUNGE.") lOn November 28 the- Mt. Eden. Club ft- Auckland- held a~ carnival, and m the BOyds handicap the result was:— fairgray (Beec), lr JVEnwright'Cser), $f C. Wilson (lOsec), 3. The time was Bnln 45sec, Enwright finished about S^r yards behind Fairgray, so must pve been doing , about 2min 39sec. £t, , the ♦ last championships he could Sniy get second' to Cunnold' in 2min K3-ssec, and if he can improve between now and February it looks as E|f another record will be ci-ashed. Con Hwilson, off lOsecy was well back at Kthe finish, and it does not look as if ■fjte can be considered a serious proEji&sition m the classic events. Kb' Pauline Hoef t was swimming at the ■flame carnival and was second m her meat In comparatively slow time. It Hpi reported ' that she is not too well, Hfiut it is hoped that she will be fit Hagain m the New Year, otherwise lt BWill rob the ladies' events at Timaru Mof a good deal of interest. This critic Hfor one believes tnat, properly handled, ■she is the equal of Gwitha Shand even River 440 yds. It was the better judgment of Miss Shand that won her the race last February, but Miss Hoeft Appears 'to have more pace and B enough stamina and with the requisite experience and coaching she should be able to turn the tables this year. At Wellington It was apparent Miss Jioeft did not know how to swim ■ihe distance. She sprinted to the. front at the start and at one period held a lead of nearly ten yards. It [was this pace for the first 100 yards that settled her for the last 40 yards — Where Miss Shand beat her ;by only a narrow margin. Fit and "weU, if *be lets Miss flhand.-maka the, .pace this season, and comes at her at the flritah; she will win. Their meeting Will probably create more interest than any other event at Timaru. 1 The win of P. Edwards m the Wellllngton Centre's 150 yds last week was [quite a good one. The time was lmin J4Bsee, and he appeared to have a bit ;I'n hand, and is more forward m his training than most swimmers at this 'time of the year. Fletcher and Mol;Jier bolh swam well, and both should ibe In the first-class ranks at the end 'of this season. The handicapper rather, overrated C. Claridge m asking him to give Edwards Bsec, especially after the excellent race the latter swam i m tho 100 yds event a fortnight before. 7 Last week I outlined the standard system of handicapping as. practised by the Canterbury Centre. The.majority of their inter-club events are 'held at the Tepid Baths, where no .great number can be started m a |heat/and there are generally a goodly K'num'ber of competitors. To avoid a j*; large number of- heats In each event ■With" the Unfit man a ioni? way out [Mthey have adopted the system of ircclassifying competitors into first and wsecQji'T L class. The result is excellent. KjThepublic dearly loves a race that is «f ought every yard of the way, but jFWhere one .man is half-way on the sLJourney before tho scratch man startsKit Is 'not nearly so interesting. It also the number of handicap events w.that' a committee can put on Its pro'wijram'me and this is -a very important •^consideration. In Canterbury a first - » class male swimmer is one who can If jBo 50yds m 32sec or faster, 100 yds m 4 72 sec or faster and 66 2/Byds m 46 ?-"•;; sec or faster. A . first-class lady I swimmer is one who can swim 60yds \\ In 40sec or faßter, 100 yds m 90sec or J faster, and 60 2/3 yds m 57sec or faster. 5 Hero again the system is practically t tlie. same as practised by the Trotting Association and m that sport It has

made for faster times and more satisfactory racing. The Trotting Cup would be robbed of halt Its interest If it were not confined to a class. The support of the public is as' necessary to swimming carnivals as any other sports gatherings and they must be entertained, and the entertainment they like best is plenty of handicap events with . close, thriUing finishes. Classifying the competitors will provide the close finishes, double the number of events, and induce swimmers to take part who otherwise would think they are too slow to exhibit themselves.

This season they are. exploring along the same lines m Sydney. Vrank Cotton has propounded a scheme Which cuts - out inter-club handicaps which he avers have spoilt swimming. He desires to formulate a series of grade scratch races divided into three kinds, according to the class of the swimmer. The handicaps at a big carnival would be confined to the "hundred best," the hundred to be sorted out by eliminating scratch heats beforehand. The outline of the scheme -that this writer has seen does not commend Itself to him as -It would probably have the effect of confining the game to a few top-notchers. The ideal should be to encourage as many as possible to take part m the sport, that they may get the physical benefit. There is more £*r»ort with a hundred medium class swimmers than with two or three champions. In any case, if the numbers are there the champions will come to light.

One part of the scheme that commends Itself was to hold 20 men aside relay races. -Tills should Induce clubs to pay more attention to second-class men and might bring out some who would otherwise be overlooked. It is quite a common fault m clubs to focus upon their stars and let the others make their own way forward:

There passed through Wellington recently Dick Cavill, sometime world's champion swimmer. • Like Annette Kellerman, Cavill has turned his prowess m the water to gain and has gone to Sydney now m connection with some theatrical production. Whilst detained with the ship m Wellington he visited sundry Prohibition meetings and baths, and discoursed interesting-! ly of his wet experiences at both. One: evening at the Tepid Baths he in-, structed those present on the art of crawling. Briefly, Cavill's theory is that the body must be kept straight to the front, with no twisting from side to side, the arms should be used cleanly, the hands gripping the water immediately each stroke commenced, and the legs disregarded," letting them look after themselves. He was precise that' there must be no jerkiness of motion, endorsing just the opinion expressed m these columns some weeks back. He thought the style of the boys and girls he saw quite good, and that With proper , coaching and training/ there was no, reason why the New Zealanders should not rank with the best m- the world, but that practice must go on right through the year instead of only four or five months m each season. He also expressed the opini6n that little further advance would be made m the record -breaking line, the limits m that direction having been just about reached. ,

"Sigs" (Wellington) is enquiring if the time, 42 3/5 sees., put up by Pete Coira m the Centres' 50 yards breast stroke handicap the other ovening,. Is equal to the N.Z. record. I am unable to find any N.Z. record for the 50 yards breast, but I noticed that versatile swimmer, Sid Beck, did the distance recently at Sydney ln 81 2/5 seca, which is an Australian recopd.