ALL ALONE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19865, 13 June 1927, Page 7

ALL ALONE

ACROSS THE CHANNEL Young Czecho-Slovakian’s Reported Feat RECORD TIME CLAIMED 2i UNCONVENTIONAL SWIMMER [By Telegraph—Per Press Assn.—Copyright.] Received June 11, 5.5 p.m. (A. & N.Z.) LONDON, June 10. A young Czecho-Slovakian is supposed to nave swam the English Channel, moreover, in record? time, without anybody knowing the fact until he himself revealed the secret. He is yence*as bpacek. Interviewed} by the Sritish United Press at Paris, he said: “I wanted to be the first this year, but I wish 1 had waited till the water was warmer. 1 left Prague on Sunday and arrived at Calais on Tuesday. 1 went to bed at seven o’clock on Wednesday evening, and awakened at midnight, and started to swim at 3 o’clock on Thursday morning. The waves were soon whipped up by a breeze, and 1 once Strack a lug, hurting my stomach. I was most distressed? when my companion, Dvaraeck, had to give up after six hours. However, 1 was getting stronger and the waves seemed to be getting smaller.” His food consisted of powiiered 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 llhrs. smin, made in September of last year. The Czecho-Slovakian Legation at Paris confirms the feat, but there is no confirmation yet from Dover. Spacek may and may not have thought to emulate Captain Lindberg’s lone and unexpected dash. Certainly his methods were unconventional. He did not use glasses and the result was temporary blindness. He was only rubbed with two pounds of grease. He says, “I consider it useless,” 1 kept Warm by fast swimming.”