SWIMMING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21578, 25 February 1932, Page 4

SWIMMING

By Neptune. FIXTURES February 25.—Continuation of Kiwi Club’s championships. February 26. —Commencement of Dunedin Club’s championships. Club Hours.—Monday; St. Clair Life Saving Club and Training College Swimming and Life Saving Club; Tuesdays and Thursdays, Kiwi Amateur Swimming Club; Fridays and Saturdays, Dunedin Amateur Swimming Club. Club hours are’ at the Municipal Baths from 8.45 to 9.45 p.m. OTAGO DIVERS As was expected, Otago again took premier honours in_ the diving events at the National Championship meeting, and from the form displayed at Timaru by R. C. Calder and H. E. Walker it looks as if this doughty pair have a mortgage on the principal placings in the Men’s Championship Dive for as long as they care to compete. Calder has : now won the New Zealand Championship six times out of the nine that the province has carried off this event, and the fact that this championship has been contested only on 12 occasions confirms Otago’s right to be called the home of diving. Calder’g victory was all the more meritorious when it is considered that it was late in the present season before he was able to buckle down to serious training, and his clear-cut win speaks volumes for his grit and enthusiasm. Walker, although vanquished by his team mate, was by no means disgraced. In capturing (be ladies’ title for the second time in succession, Miss Joy Eggers has definitely taken her place among the finest lady divers that New Zealand has produced. Critics from every quarter of the Dominion hailed her performance as one of the finest displays of diving ever seen at a National Championship meeting, and her win was as popular as it was well-deserved. KIWI CHAMPIONSHIPS The Kiwi Club’s series of championship races will be continued this evening, when the Men’s 50 Yards event will be contested. Next Thursday the Men’s 100 Yards, Ladies’ 50 Yards, Junior Boys’ 50 Yards, and Junior Girls’ 50 Yards championships will be swum off, whilst March 8 js the date set down for deciding the Men’s 100 Yards Breaststroke. A fortflight to-night the Men’s 220 Yards, Ladies’ 75 Yards. Junior Boys’ 75 Yards, and Junior Girls’ 75 Yards events will be /decided, and a week later the Men’s 440 Yards and Ladies’ 100 Yards championships will be contested. The Men’s 100 Yards Backstroke and Ladies’ 100 Yards Breaststroke championships will be decided on March 15. In all these events cup points will be awarded, three being given for first, two for second, and one for third. On March 10 races will also be staged for swimmers who are hot competing in championship events, and a 33 1-3 Yards Ladies’ Handicap and a Junior Boys’ and Girlg’ 33 1-3 Yards Handicap have been included in the programme. The club diving championship will be held on March 22. DUNEDIN CLUB’S RACES The Dunedin Club will commence its competitions for the W. F. James and J. J. Clark Cups and the Thomson and Jarvis Medals at the club hour to-morrow night. On this date the 33 1-3 Yards Back-stroke and Diving junior events for the James Cup, the 50 Yards Free-style and the Diving senior events for the Clark Trophy, and the first round of the James and Thomson Medal competitions will be decided. On; February 27 the Junior 50 Yards Free-style, the Senior 100 Yards Free-style, and 66 2-3 Yards Backstroke . will, be contested, as will the round of the Jarvis Medal com-, petition. March 4 will see the 50 Yards Junior Breast-stroke and the 220 Yards Senior Free-style swim off, and on the following evening competitors in the 100 Yards Back-stroke and the final round of the Jarvis Medal will face the starter. The Jarvis Medal competition will comprise three races each of 25 yards for learners, competitors to take five points for a win, three for a second, and one for a third. The Thomson Medal is for novices who have only learned to swim this season, and, like the Jarvis Medal, has been given to allow the club’s_ coaches to gain some idea of the material they will have to work on during the succeeding season. There will be three races—a width, two widths, and 25 yards—and in each race points will count five, three,; and one for first, second, and, third respectively. Splendid entries have come forward for the various events, and some keen racing is anticipated, especially among the junior entrants. A ' LEAP TO FAME Frances Bult, the,Victorian girl who •won the 100 Yards (in Imin 3-ssec) and the 110 Yards (in Imin 12 3-ssec) in the women’s swimming events at the Australian National Games, and whose times for those distances become Australian records, is 18 years of age. She is to represent the Commonwealth at the Olympic Games. It is scarcely likely that she will beat Helene Madison, the American champion, but the experience should be very beneficial to her. She has .come to the front in Australian swimming within a very short time. NEW ZEALANDER IN SYDNEY A Watson, a former Wellington swimmer, has met with great success in Sydney. He is one of the leading performers of the Sydney Club, specialising in backstroke swimming, at which style he has improved vastly since leaving New Zealand. For some time past he has been registering smart figures over various distances, and recently he attempted to lower the New South' Wales record- for ,200 yards. In this he was successful, 'covering the distance in 3min 7 4-ssec, an improvement of l-ssec on the previous time. In a later effort on the same afternoon he swam backstroke in a 220 yarns free-style race and recorded 3mm 6sec. These' times will indicate the improvement Watson has made. Watson is at present in Auckland, and .will leave tomorrow for Wellington prior to making a business trip to Canada. NOEL RYAN’S VICTORY On the final day of the National Games swimming events in Melbourne Noel Ryan turned the tables in the Quarter-pule on Charlton, who had previously beaten him over the distance in the New South Wales championships. Terrific cheering greeted the appearance of the champions on. the starting board, and it reached, a crescendo as the competitors set on in a line. Ryan turned only a fraction of a second ahead of Charlton at 55 yards. But at 110 yards his lead had been increased to half a yard. At the next turn Charlton was level with his rival, but Ryan, sprinting, had an advantage of a yard when they completed the next lap. Charlton simply cleaved his way through the water, but Ryan tenaciously clung to his small lead to the finish. Ryam afterwards stated that at the last turn he had; a feeling that he was “horiie and dry, and added: “When Andy &ot into the deep water he was coming at me fast, and I had to go for my; life. There was nothing in it.” LINDSAY'S TRIUMPH At the New Zealand swimming championships D. P. Lindsay showed himself to be the greatest distance swimmer New Zealand has ever had. He was improving with every swim down there, and next year he should, have a great chance of ■wresting the 220 Yards title from Gordon Bridson. besides retaining the three titles he already holds (states the Sun). The fact that more records were not broken in the men’s free-style events is due to the slowness of the water down there, and also to its being a 50-yard hath. Lindsay said after his mile at Timaru that he noticed a great difference in the water there as compared with that in the Linwood baths in which he put up the great time of 22min 57 3-ssec for this distance a fortnight ago —a time which is now awaiting recognition by the council as a New Zealand record. Bridson’s time in the 220 Yards Championship, 2min 27 4-ssec, would certainly have been a record had he been swimming in salt water, and it is pretty safe to say that Lindsay’s time in the 440 Yards would have keen another one. The meeting was a great triumph for Lindsay, but it would take a whole lot more than that to disturb “ Dave’s ” incurable modesty. It was Alec. Stokes’s fate to finish third in each of the men’s free-style championships; he swam a very solid_ race every time, and added a most useful little Jot to Canterbury’s shield points. It is a tough proposition to be up against two swimmers such as Bridson and Lindsay,