PLUCKY MAORI WOMAN.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18845, 7 April 1931, Page 13

PLUCKY MAORI WOMAN.

! WORLD ENDURANCE RECORD. SYDNEY, March 27. Miss Katerina Hehua, a married woman with four children, broke the world’s record for endurance swimming at Balmoral baths, Sydney, when she remained in the water for 72 hours 9 minutes. She takes her maiden Maori name of Nehua for these contests, but she is the wife of a Sydney resident. Her first essay at this type of swimming was at the Manly baths, when ! she swam second to Miss Mercedes Gleitze in the contest during which : Miss Gleitze broke her own endurance j record. Miss Nehua earned many eni comiums on her plucky effort on that I occasion. Her recent record-breaking ’ feat was undertaken on behalf of a i local hospital in distress, and the gallant woman remained in the water for ! more than three days. | As the time drew near for the record to be broken the baths were so overcrowded with curious sightseers that hundreds had to be satisfied with a j verbal description as they sat in the park outside. Remarkable scenes of enthusiasm were witnessed as the announcement was made that Miss Nehua had succeeded in breaking the world's record. The crowd sang “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and other rousing songs as the woman paddled on for another five minutes. Then she was assisted from the water, and under ambulance treatment soon became sufficiently restored to be taken home. Her attendant, who had remained with her during the whole of the time, collapsed at the completion of the attempt. She was in worse plight than the game record-breaker Interviewed after she had taken a long sleep. Miss Nehua said that the last few hours of the attempt was agonising. She could barely keep her eyes open, and the cold was intense. The weather was cold, and rain fell heavily at times. “At any future time, should I be called upon to defend my new record,” she said, “I will insist that it be done in tepid water, such as that used by ' endurance swimmers of the same type in other parts of the world. For two l hours before I passed the old figure I : was too afraid fo swim near the boat \in which my trainer sat. I knew that if I did, I would not have been able I to resist the temptation to hold on to the side of the boat. And that would have disqualified me.”