CHANNEL SWIM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16364, 11 June 1927, Page 15

CHANNEL SWIM

WITHOUT ANNOUNCEMENT CZECHO-SLAV'S FEAT (Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) (Received June 11. 3 p.m.) LONDON, .lime 11. A young Czeeho-Slovakinn is supposed to have swum the' English Channel: moreover, ni record time without anybody knowing the fact, until he himself reveiled the secret. Ycncelas Spacek. interviewed by the British United Press at Paris, said : "1 Avanted t 0 be the first this year, but 1 wish I had waited till the vlater was warmer. I left Prague on Sunday, and arrived at Calais on Tuesday. 1 went to bed at 7 o'clock on Wednesday evening, awakened at- midnight, and started to swim at 3 o'clock on Thursday morning. The Waves were soon whipped up by a breeze, and I was striick by a log, hurting my stomach. " I was most distressed when my companion, Dvoracek, had to give Up after six hours. However, I was getting stronger, and the waves seemed lo ho getting smaller." His food consisted of powdered chocolate and three bananas. He landed at Dover at 1.45 o'clock on Thursday afternoon, his time being 10$ hours, which beats Michel's record of 11 hours 5 minutes. The Czeeho-Slovakian Legation . at Paris confirms the feat, but there is no confirmation yet from Dover. Spacek may and may not have thought io emulate Lindbergh's lone, unexpected dash. Certainly his methods were unconventional. He did not use glasses, and the result was temporary blindness. He was only rubbed with 21b of grease. Ho says: "f I consider it useless. I kept warm by fast swimming."