SWIMMING.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 627, 2 October 1909, Page 12

SWIMMING.

■ fr— —: — ' (By SrtAsn.) ' "With some degree of 1 warmth creeping .into tho water swimmers are. beginning..to hunt up their bathing costumcs again, and the, baths, which have been practically deserted for-the past.few months,-are beginning to show signs of life again. The'vnrious clubs are. starting to plan put the coming seasons campaign, and another three weeks should 'See. the. sport fairly well under way. . Xiio iiiuo, cuampiousiup. atSouthport.is, of course, the, topic of tne present, says a recent Xondon "Sportsman." That : Battersby. won, and' beat tue record, created no surprise, but that ijavid: Biliuigton's ■! old figures. of. .Miuin.' snouid nave beeii beuieii By as rnucn 1-osec. was uitugcuier unexpecitd.,' Truiy tho ueveiupmeuc, ui shimming st/eed in recent years iias ueen; so marvellous time one wonuers wiie'u. linahcy will be reached. A Manchester authority wuo was present ■ states that, ntut Battersuy steered .a: btraigiu course ■' lie .would have' reduced the record uy.eiglit or ten- more seconds. ■" The;Sauthport. ma.n is an erratic swimmer 1 even in a uath. That '1 aylor .has not deteriorated is proved by his. time,- 24mm. 29Jsec.,: which is 'just under lZsec.,; faster thaii v.ne. oiu reouru; whiisc Willie poster-was only 2i) 2-ssec. outside it. As a matter of fact, onjy..twice in the history,of the_ «oe has th« third, man's tiine been beaten— by BiUington, ill 1903 (24min. 56 iWsec.), and: luos, whem he put rup the record just - beaten.,- -There {tas suoir a rush, on ,the platform after, tho race that'.the'; weight broke it down, and' a number of people were thrown into tho water. ■'.-'Battersby deserves his .. record, for only a technicality deprived him of it. last year,, when swimming on'after tho ,1500 metres race at the. Stadium had finished he covered a mile .in iimin. 33sec. " Tho matter was : considered by the A.S.A., but as the pond was just two feet shorter than the minimum allowed by the oonditionsj'all that could bo done was.to.giv6 the perforiiianco a footnote at. ; the. end of. the records. Tho same thing was. done for "Splash" Cavill . seven : years ago;, when,; owing to .n. mistake by the officials, his", 100 yards frecord at: Eornsey. lload ! Baths. was' refused: ; There was ho doubt about the-time, but, unfortunately, the' officials, forgetting that; records' jn this country must ,bo made in",scratch, races, allowed Gavill to give; starts' to two others, which made' a. handicap of it. ■ i Battersby swam very consistently up to threequarters of a mile, when .he 'became' slower,, possibly tho result of crratio steering. His first and.last lap were .the fastest, whilst -at half a inilo. ho was only' one-fiftli iof .a. second oatside.-*lt^e championship ..'at bSwindbn ;';a "weekt remarkable (performance.'"; v.t'' ' So faros :!• can 'ascertain the mile'record'lias benn broken 'sovenV :'tiines ;in ■ sixteen yoars, ! "time":. duriiig' that period buying. beon backmarked "to, the extent'of. Smin. 20sec. . .'/Spread over such a period this does not appear to be much,; but -it; is toally 1 mora fhlin tho actual figures sKowv. Of course, the swimming conditions to-day are muchv better than jvhen Tyors was champion. Men hayo greater opportunities now, whilst plenty of racing'enables the modern champion to train hotter than was, tho case in the old"; days.' Twenty years ago i.H. Bowden won' the mile'championship ; iri' 31min. 0 ,4-ssec. BattersbyV recent swim was,just two yards in ten' faster 'over, tho whole course', which, perhaps, conveys n better idea of speed, development than anything else. there is no other sport- that can. point,;to .such a great stride in, a'few years,' and even though we must bo nearing'finality' there is likely, to. bo a further improvement. The mile record as it has been beaten'since 1893.is as follows'

M B 27 21 2 5 J H Tyors, Leeds, July 8, 1893 26 46 1 2 J H Tvers, Walsall, July 11, 189<i V V 1 0 J A Jams, Sonthport, July 16, 1893 2i 13 2-3 J 'A' Jarvis, Leicester, August 8, 1 1599 2t 56 2-5 D BiHmgton, ieiccstor, August 1,1903 24 42 35 D 'Billington, Highgate, July 1, 1005 21 12 0 i' b Battersby, faouthport, Aug 7,1909 Remarkable as has been this dovolopmont o\or long-di-tanco bwiramfng, says an English writer, it cannot bo compared with tho sprints In 1878 tho 100 yards championship was won in 76Jsec, but twenty nino years later C If Daniels occupied only 55 2-sscc—a reduction of over 21« cc, which -would mean that'Daniolß would jd\6 Mooro over |twonty lire yaids start in 100 yards and bout him Indeed, oven tho pcerlos* never did hotter than CCisec in tho ehampiohship He> howovov, was nover nnd could have dono a great deal better than that time had it been noce?sary