BRITISH SWIMMERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 300, 18 December 1937, Page 4

BRITISH SWIMMERS

TALENT FOR THE GAMES GREAT CONTESTS LIKELY Swimming contests of the British Empire Games, to be held at the North Sydney Olympic Pool on February 5, 9 and 11, should provide some of the greatest natatorial events witnessed in Australia. They will bring together the finest gathering of champions ever assembled in the southern hemisphere (states Mr. D. Hellmich in the Sporting Globe). Great interest will be centred in the meetings of the stars from England, Wales, Scotland, Canada, New Zealand, India, Ceylon, Bermuda, South Africa, Rhodesia and Australia. Up to the present, the only countries whose representatives have been submitted are England, Scotland, Wales, New Zealand and Bermuda. England will send Fred Dove, N. Wainwright, R. Lei vers, M. Y. Ffrench-Williams, and K. R. Hamil-ton-Deane (free style), M. H. Taylor (backstroke), J. G. Davies (breaststroke) and C. D. Tomalin (diver). Present “100” Champion. Fred Dove is the present 100 yards champion of England, his time for the race being 55 4-ssec. His best for 100 metres, put up in a 50-metre pool at Wembley, is 61 l-ssec. He hails from London, and is considered to be one of the most rapidly improving swimmers in Europe to-day. Norman Wainwright has held the English 220 and 440 yards championships for the past three years, and recently took the 880 yards title in the British record time of 10.25 3-5, which no Australian, excepting Andrew Charlton, has yet equalled. Wainwright’s time for 220 and 440 yards are 2.18 3-5 and 4.57 2-5.

A greatly improved swimmer during the last year, Wainwright is going to prove a thorn in the sides of the Empire’s best in the 440 and 1560 yards tests. He is from Hanley.

R. Leivers, a fine all-round Performer, represented England at the Berlin Olympiad, and was a member of England’s team at the London Empiad in 1934. Until recently Leivers held the British 880 yards record at 10.30, and was placed second to Wainwright in this year’s 880 yards championship in 10.32 1-5. Leivers swam second to Wainwright in the English 440 yards championship in 5.11 2-5. At Berlin he did particularly well in both the 400 and 1500 metres free style championship. In the 400 metres he won a heat in 4.57 1-10, was fourth in a semi-final in 4.d5 7110, and seventh in the final, (5.00 3-5). In the 1500 metres he was second to Ishiharada (Japan) in the first heat in 20.04 2-5, third in a semi-final in 20.10, and seventh in the final in 19.59. He is a resident of Longton. M. Y. Ffrench-WilliaiDs, a Londoner, represented Britain at the Olympic Games in 1932 and 1936, and finished a close third in the English 100 yards championship. He will probably compete in the 110 yards free tyle and medley relay. K. R. Hamilton-Deane, who is 15, probably will be the youngest male competitor at the Games. A resident of Yarmouth, he flashed into prominence at the English championships this year by gaining fourth place in the 100 and 440 yards championships, his time in the quarter being 5.14. With Dove, Wainwright aad Leivers, he was a member of the English 800 metres team which defeated a German team in England recently in 9.26 3-5. He will probably represent his country in all free style events. M. H. Taylor, of Sheffield, is the present 150 yards backstroke champion of England, his time being 1.45 1-5; but he holds the English record for the distance at 1.41. His style is reported to be most effective. Competing against the German champion, H. Schlauch, in the 55 yards Wembley pool a few months ago, he covered the 100 metres in 1.11 4-5. He will be England’s representative in the 220 yards breast and 330 yards medley teams’ races.

J. G. Davies, England’s 220 yards breaststroke champion, won his first English title this season in comfortable style in 2.42 1-5. He is a devotee of the butterfly stroke, and is said to be improving with every swim. In the England versus Germany contests at Wembley Davies was defeated by the Germart champion, Erwin Sietas, in the very creditable time of 2.58 1-5 for 200 metres.

C. D. Tomalin is highboard diving champion of England, which is not to be wondered at, as he is a member of the Air Force. Tomalin ranks about fifth or sixth among European divers to-day. At the 1936 Olympic Gam is he was placed ninth with 91.14 points, well ahead of Australian Ron Masters, who was 15th with 86.95 points. Tomalin was second in the springboard title events at the 1934 Empiad in London.