EYES ON HELSINKI

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27311, 10 February 1950, Page 8

EYES ON HELSINKI

EMPIRE GAMES FJNALIST

SCOTTISH SCHOOLGIRL SWIMMER

From the Sports Editor AUCKLAND, Feb. 9. Helen Gordon, the 16-year-old schoolgirl who sprang the biggest surprise of the Empire Games by defeating the Australian Olympic star, Nancy Lyons, in the 220 Yards Breaststroke on Wednesday afternoon, met with no success at the European Games in Monte Carlo in 1947, but was a semi-finalist at the 1948 Olympic Games. Her performance on Wednesday was the best she has ever registered in any competition. She now has her eyes fixed on the Olympic Games at Helsinki, Finland, in 1952. She was taught to swim at the age of four years by her mother, a former Scots diving champion, but she did not take up the sport seriously until three years ago. Miss Gordon will appear in the South Island when the United Kingdom team visits there next week, and so will Miss Edna Child, the new Empire diving chamPl Miss Child, who is 27, in private life is Mrs Andrew Tym, of Shepperton-on-Thames, England, She decided to retire from the sport when she was married last Easter, but her husband prevailed on her to enter the English national championship, which she won to gain selection for the Empire Games. Nancy Lyons (Australia), runner-up in the Olympic breaststroke and second in the 220 Yards Breaststroke on Wednesday. has announced her retirement from swimming. She says she is tired of it.