WORLD CHAMPIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 7 March 1935, Page 7

WORLD CHAMPIONS

E. POUSSARD AND J. TARIS TWO UNASSUMING FRENCHMEN. CARNIVAL CROWD SPELLBOUND. SPLENDID SPEED AND GRACE. Jean Taris was to Taranaki folk before last night merely a name seen often in articles on swimming and cablegrams from Europe, and the name of Emil Poussard conveyed not so much. A crowd of over 1000 that gathered at a carnival at New Plymouth last night expected great things, for the reputation of the two Frenchmen, swimmer and diver, had preceded them, but the display they were privileged to witness far exceeded all hopes. For minutes all too brief Taris demonstrated speed in the water that has won him at various times five world’s records, and Poussard gave a wonderful performance of diving. World’s champions they were acclaimed and world’s champions they were. Emil Poussard, the broad-built stocky little Parisian, was a mass of rippling muscles as he poised on the end of the springboard. A figure of splendid grace, his diving typified his personality. A 'eap into the air, with flight such as New Zealand artists have never thought of, and Poussard held the crowd breathless. Each time every muscle of his perfectly controlled body came into play. Fifteen dives he produced altogether, the final two in response to insistent roars of applause. There was a pike, an inward pike, a back dive, one and a-half somersaults running, two and a-half somersaults, one and a-half somersaults backwards, back dive with pike, half mullberg, inward somersault, pike with a half screw, full screw, half mullberg with pike, one and a-half somersaults with a full screw* —a stupendous effort—and finally a one and a-half mullberg, and a plain dive of much grace. Maybe a performance such as perhaps no other diver in the world could produce was inspired by the playing of the Marsellaise as Poussard first took his place upon the board. Taris, Olympic champion and superior to the best in Australia and Japan, skimmed over the water with a style that was a revelation. Breathing in unorthodox fashion on left and right with three arm strokes between each breath, Taris swam with a Wide sweep of the arms, gaining the full length from each Stroke with perfect balance and relaxation, the full length of his spine being out of the water.

It was Taris’ leg action that fixed the crowd’s attention, however. Breaking the aurface with each flurried beat, he kept each leg straight but with relaxation at the knee. The secret, explained Poussard to a News reporter as Taris swam up and down the baths, was that he did not kick downwards—he drove upwards against the water with the soles of his feet. The amazing foot propulsion was demonstrated to the crowd as the Versailles man took a board in his hands and paddled up the baths, in “slow motion,” and returned likewise at ordinary pace with speed as good as any Taranaki man could do with legs and arms as well.

The Frenph champion proved the tremendous power of his leg action' by swimming with arm propulsion alone; he could not go so fast. Enthusiasts who had witnessed ability in sport that is not bettered anywhere in the world rose one man after each demonstration and cheered the visitors to the echo.

Prowess of a different nature was. displayed by Mr. C. Bryant, the manager of the New Zealand tour and a former chairman of the Netv Zealand Swimming Council. Official Dominion starter as far back as 1913 and at intervals since, he took charge of the starting board and capped well-timed organisation and handicapping by sending the fields away perfectly.