SWIMMING

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 160796, 2 November 1920, Page 6

SWIMMING

By “NATATOR.” The swimming people are being.shockingly treated - by the clerk of the weather, and until conditions are more, settled the boys and: girls will not be able to get down to proper training. It is very discouraging for local swimmers to learn that,' while they are prevented from getting into stride, Auckland, ‘Wellington, and Christchurch axe holding carnivals in their tepid baths. At °a swimming carnival held, at Christchurch last week, the prominent; competitors-showed that they were in form by putting up some good times. Christchurch is all out to win back the shield -from Auckland at the next championship meeting to he held at Dunedin in "February. ; Some surprise was expressed at .the swimming carnival conducted by the Christchurch City Council in the Tepid Baths when, in a heat of the 66 2-3 yards handicap, ,W. Sutherland (United) heat the intermediate champion, N. S. Batchelor (East Christchurch). Both started from the 2i|sec. mark. Sutherland completed the distance in 40secs. On Batchelor’s form last year it was expected that he would have broken 40sees. over this distance. Sutherland appears to have improved somewhat. He commenced last season in good form, hub failed later to shake off the fall effects of an illness. There has been quite a lot of trouble in swimming and surfing m'atters in the . Dominion in the last couple of years. Last season, there was trouble over the, Nelson Shield contest for .the Dominion surfing championship, which'was to .have been held in Auckland. Two days after the Canterbury team left for Auckland, the Ha-wke’s Bay Life-Sav-ing Centre? which held the trophy, withdrew the shield from competition,, objecting to alterations in the conditions governing the contest. Last week the Dominion Executive of the Royal LifeSaving Society decided that Hawke s Bay must hand oyer the shield before the altered conditions are discussed with Hawke's Bay or any other centre. It also decided that a New Zealand championship contest should! be held in Dunedin in the. coming season, irrespective of whether the shield has been banded over or not. Of course, if the trophy has been handed over by that time, ’ the championship contest will carry the shield with it. Wanganui will probably be represented in the next competition. The Christchurch City Council, recognising that no form of sport excels that of swimming for physically building up a good race of people, ran a carnival of its own last week, the Baths Committee being assisted by the officials of the N.Z.A.S.A. , Tha chairman, in the course of an address, assured the large crowd present that the City Council wanted to show that it had the interests of the sport at heart. Members of the Council. and particularly the Baths Committee, fully intended to keep in close touch with the sport. . The Wanganui Borough Council might follow suit.