SWIMMERS PUT ON THEIR METTLE

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31098, 29 June 1966, Page 10

SWIMMERS PUT ON THEIR METTLE

rpHE swimmers in New A Zealand’s Empire Games training squad have been asked by the national council to rewrite the record book before they leave for Jamaica, while they are there, and again when they return.

This is typical of the challenges the council is throwing down to the competitors to fan the flames of purpose and dedication that are already burning strongly. But judging by the way the swimmers are training in Auckland this is one challenge that could well be met

The council, through its chairman, Mr A. J. Donaldson, and its deputy-chair-man, Mr G. S. Brockett, has given the swimmers a soulstirring “New Zealand expects” message to complement the strenuous training build-up. “Bags of smoke and down

the middle,” an expression of Mr Brockett’s, has become a catch-phrase signifying the motivating power behind the scheme to win a glowing pile of medals for New Zealand at the Kingston pool.

The swimmers have borne the heavy load of 13 twohour training sessions a week cheerfully and conscientiously. But through-

out the training period the coach, Mr M. A. Doidge, and Messrs Donaldson and Brockett have kept the carrot always a little ahead of the nose. “Are you intending to walk to Jamaica—l thought you were going to swim,” said Mr Brockett to the butterfly champion, D. F. Gerrard, as the latter hung limply over the pool surround at the end of a strenuous work-out. “If I thought you meant that . . .” said Gerrard. “I do,” replied Mr Brockett, trying hard to disguise the twinkle in his eye. The council’s psychology must be working. At a recent luncheon for the squad in Auckland the card signifying the competitors’ places at the table read “Eleven of the best swimmers in the world.”

Quickly and quietly the group went to work. Before the hors d’oeuvres had been served the inscription had been changed to “The eleven best swimmers In the world.”