ANNETTE KELLERMAN CUP HARBOUR RACE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22810, 20 February 1936, Page 12

ANNETTE KELLERMAN CUP HARBOUR RACE

TO THE EDITOR

Sik, —In a heat of the 150 Yards New Zealand Backstroke Championship decided on Monday morning L. .T. Moorhouse, of Canterbury, was disqualified for not touching with both hands when turning at the end of the baths, and this disqualification on such a technicality cost Moorhouse a likely second .place in the final of the Backstroke Championship and cost his province three points. To-day, in the Annette. Kellennan Cup Harbour Race (three miles), the Otago officials controlling the race were as las as- the day previously they had been officious, "and openly permitted and, in fact, encouraged, supporters and minor officials accompanying the swimmers in dighys to nace and escort and generally to advise and direct the swimmers competing. ,As a test of the best New Zealand open-water distance swimmers who were competing it was a complete “wash-out” and resolved itself largely into a competition of watermanship on the part of those in the dinghys with the swimmers blindly following and obeying instructions.

Open-water distance swimming is a trial of speed, plus stamina, plus experience, plus a knowledge of the sea in all its vagaries. Judgment plays a very important part in this kind of racing. It is the supreme test of a swimmer’s ability. , , , The Otago officials know a good deal about baths swimming (less, possibly, about judging races), but obviously little about the conduct and management of open-water distance swimming races, and they should have sought the counsel of those competent to advise them in this matter. , i A ~ . One can quite confidently assert that had the dinghys merely patrolled the course (as a safeguard against any untoward happening) and not paced and directed the swimmers, the result of the race would have been much different. The New Zealand Council of the Amateur Swimming Association should in future races for this cup stringently observe this competition and insist ,on full compliance with the rules governing this race and the elementary rules of competitive swimming.—I am, etc., Old Swimmer. , Dunedin, February 18.