Hard Work And Dedication May Gain Jamaica Trip

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30958, 14 January 1966, Page 11

Hard Work And Dedication May Gain Jamaica Trip

[By Our Swimming Reporter) Allison McMillan and Jennifer Halsey, the Waikato swimmers who have moved to Christchurch for a year to further their chances of Empire Games selection, have completed the first part of their assignments with colours flying.

If the girls’ coach, Mr V. T. Parkhouse, was to issue a

half-term report on his charges he would have no hesitation in awarding them "A” passes for devotion to training and diligence in attaining physical excellence. The last five months have been an arduous and unglamorous period for the girls; they have swum hundreds of miles in training and spent many hours building up condition with dry land exercises. FIVE RECORDS Yet within this time they have broken five Canterbury records and Miss McMillan is currently in the New Zealand

team competing at the Victoria championships in Melbourne. These are remarkable achievements, for Mr Parkhouse has yet to direct their full efforts to the fast work that will bring them to peak sharpness for the national championships in the Napier pool next month. The change in environment has had a marked effect on the performances of the two swimmers. Both emerged from their winter calisthenics programme in better shape than before and Miss McMillan, a notoriously slow

.. starter, was down to 69sec for . 110 yd freestyle before October was out. 5 WARMER WATER r When the girls trained in £ the 50-year-old unheated bath 5 in Cambridge in previous seaj sons, Mr Parkhouse had to . make their sessions short because of the coldness of the t water. In the heated Wharej nui Coronation pool, however, 5 he has been able to give them j much more conditioning s through protracted interval , training. Considering the heavy i training loads they are carrying, the girls’ efforts in competition have been startling. In the premier events carnival in December Miss McMillan thrashed a group of her chief rivals over both 11 Oyd and 220 yd freestyle and broke the provincial records in each event. In an unpublicised scratch race at the Coronation pool, Miiss McMillan beat Miss Caroline House, the former American and world record holder, who, although retired, is still a remarkably fine swimmer. ENDURANCE Miss Halsey’s powers of endurance were vividly illustrated by events on the day of December 4. In the morning she swam two miles in training: in the afternoon she competed in a carnival at North Beach, and at night, in the Wharenui v. Kiwi (Dunedin) contest, she swam the fastest 110 yd backstroke of her career. Mr Parkhouse kept Miss McMillan on hard work until about half a week before her departure for Australia, when her daily mileages was reduced. She will be back in time for the Canterbury championships and then will concentrate on short, sharp work in preparation for the defence of her three titles at the New Zealand meeting. The Victorian championships should not sap her strength to the extent that she is not at best for Napier. Miss McMillan, for all her slender appearance, is a tough and wiry performer. In a recent series of eight 110 yd training sprints, with two-minute intervals, her fastest effort was her last. From i a push-off start, she swam only 1 two seconds and a half out- 1 side her New Zealand record. I