ALL WAS NOT WELL

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31001, 5 March 1966, Page 11

ALL WAS NOT WELL

’THE Napier Olympic Pool 1 would have had an inferiority complex if it could have heard all the unkind remarks made about its suitability for championship racing at the national title meeting last week. The pool did not deserve all the criticism it received, although its irregular shape did cause some misgivings. The shallow bays which bulged into the concourse at each side caused a ruffling of the surface and several competitors shipped a mouthful of water when they least expected it. There was also a tendency for swimmers in the outside lanes to be borne outwards by the swell. And the senior breaststroke champion. H. W. Graham, one of those whom swam all his races in the middle lanes, gained the impression that he had been cast into a dark sea of despair, with the end of the pool remaining distant for a seemingly interminable period. The criticism levelled at the pool tended to mask the most disquieting factor of the meeting. This was the lack of championship atmosphere, brought about chiefly by the meeting’s incredibly slack tempo on the first two days. A vast time lag occurred between the end of a race and the announcement of the result and the pageantry associated with the the presentation of medals was carried out with the studied tread of a slow march. The competitors, too, contributed to the sorry state of affairs by treating the warm-up periods like a day at the seaside. Matters reached rock bottom on the evening of the second day. The first warmup period was followed by some dreadful moments of inactivity. Then came some speeches and, to cap it all, the slowest heat of the 1650yard freestyle event, which took just over 20min to complete. By this time it was 8.30 p.m., the crowd was fidgety, and the swimmers who had warmed up earlier were cold. The championships could have foundered there and then, but on the last two days of pool swimming proceeds were canned out with the brisk efficiency expected of the country’s premier swimming meeting. In view of the importance of the meeting from the point of view of the Empire

Games nominations, disappointment was felt at the slower times recorded by many of the leading competitors. Undoubtedly, the easy tempo on the first two days permeated through the ranks of the swimmers and the modest public attendance did little to whip up enthusiasm. It was inevitable that the Napier meeting would be compared with the previous national championships in the Moana Pool, Dunedin. This was an unfair comparison, for Napier did not have the intense competitive atmosphere of the plush indoor pool, nor the stimulating presence of the Australians.

To be fair, then, the same standards could not have been expected to be improved wholesale—but they should have been maintained. It is distressing to record that in men’s freestyle and women’s freestyle and breaststroke there was evidence of recession at Napier. Certainly, there was close competition in freestyle events, but that was all that could be said.

Freestyle will continue to be the ugly duckling of the strokes in New Zealand until there is a great improvement in turning technique. In the heats of the women’s / 110 yd event—a a race in which slick turning is essential—it was galling to see 10 of the 12 competitors using a gliding turn. Evidently, the example given by the American girls had gone unheeded. The best possible postscript to the meeting was provided by a challenging address given to the competitors by Mr A. J. Donaldson, the chairman of the national council and convener of selectors. He reminded the swimmers that the outstanding American coach, Dr. J. Counsilman, had assessed the recipe for success in swimming as a matter of brjt, pain and agony. New Zea 1 and swimmers, said Mr Donaldson, knew the hurt that came from achieving fitness, and a little of the pain associated with swimming many miles in training. But very few had experienced the agony that came from giving a race the full measure of one’s resources.

Until this occurred on a widespread scale, he said, New Zealand would not achieve a break-through into world class.