Personalities In Sport

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 317, 30 March 1928, Page 10

Personalities In Sport

Dunedin College Girl Is Dominion’s Best Distance Swimmer

The young Otago girl, Kathleen Miller, may well feel proud of having attained such eminence in the New Zealand and Australian swimming world while still in her teens, but her admirers and supporters hold high hopes of her enhancing her already fine record of registering still greater victories, for now that she has been given the opportunity of representing the Dominion at the Olympic Games, Miss Miller may certainly be relied upon to do so with credit. Miss Miller, who is 18 years of age, has been swimming ever since she was a small girl at the High Street, Dunedin, School, where she began her education, but the credit of perfecting her style and speed may justly be claimed by “Professor” E. H. Olds, for many years custodian of the Dunedin Municipal Baths, and now coach of the swimming section of the San Diego Athletic Club, California, one of the biggest organisations of its kind in the United States of America. By

his sound teaching Miss Miller developed a style that is recognised by all good judges as being well-nigh perfect in every respect. She does the six-beat crawd; has a very powerful, rhythmical leg action and a smooth! easy arm stroke, with a good reach. A RAPID RISE At the beginning of her career as a swimmer Kathleen Miller met with a fair amount of success in junior events, but it was not until she got into the intermediate section that she attained New Zealand honours. It was in 1926, at Napier, that she first loomed up as a potential national champion, by winning the intermediate girls’ 220vds championship of New Zealand in 2min 51 2-ssec. In the following year she made her debut as a senior swimmer, and won the 220yds championship, at Auckland, after a close race with Miss M. Jepson, also of Otago, the time, 2min 52 3-ssec, being 5 3-5 sec slower than Miss Gwitba Shand’s New Zealand record, truly a fine swim for a first essay in the senior division. She also won the 440yds championship on this occasion, and when, later, she accompanied Miss Ena Stockley on a tour of the Dominion, she put up some splendid performances, registering 6min 9 l-ssec over the 440yds in salt water at Napier, this being but 1 l-ssec outside Miss Shand’s record for the distance. At New Plymouth she made an attempt on Miss Violet Walrond’s record and succeeded in lowering it by a wide margin. Unfortunately for Miss Miller, a remeasurement of the baths revealed the fact that the course was 4ft 7in short of the full distance; consequently the record could not be recognised officially. A GREAT SEASON This season Miss Miller has gone on to further triumphs. At Dunedin she finished second to Ena Stockley in the women’s 100yds national championship. In the 220yds she won as she liked in 2min olsec—remarkably good time for fresh water —and in the 440yds she came home practically a baths-length ahead of the next girl in 6min 9 2-ssec. And then, when invited to compete in Australia, Miss Miller demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt that rhe was in class which entitled her to be regarded as one of the world’s best women swimmers. Her finest performance in Australia probably was when she won the New South Wales 440yds championship by a touch from Miss Edna Davey who is Australia’s chosen for the Olympic Games, in 6min 3 9-10 sec. Australian critics regard this time as equal to a world’s record, taking into account the difference in the length of the baths in which the respective times were recorded. Next, Miss Miller won the Australian 440yds and 220yds championships. Her only defeat over her favourite distances was in the New South Wales 220yds championship, in which, despite the fact that she was fouled by another competitor crossing her, she was beaten by Miss Davey by a touch only. Kathleen Miller’s best distance probably is 440yds, and there is no doubt that she will have to be reckoned with seriously in the 440 metre event at the Olympic Games. The 100 metres, too, is a distance over which she has shown considerable improvement of late, the extra 10 yards over the 100 making all the difference to her. STILL AT COLLEGE The Otago-born girl possesses both the physique and the temperament necessary for success in first-clase company. A blonde, of medium height, she is a splendid figure of young New Zealand womanhood, and, further, she is as game a swimmer a» ever plunged into yater, never acknowledging defeat until the race is over. On leaving the High Street School she went to the Otago Girls High School, of which she was champion swimmer until she went to Columba College, where she is still f pupil. Throughout her swimmiuS career she has been a member of tn Kiwi Club and for five successi years she won the club’s women championship cup, finally relinQUisfl" ing it in order to give the lesser liS» n a chance. . . Miss Miller is not a one-sport For the past two years she n played hockey for Columba and for the Otago Club, at once taining representative honours, performing with marked her province. She is unaffected, © entirely pleasing personality. an ~l in£ club captain of the Kiwi Swimm*e* . Club, is always eager to pass knowledge to younger or less-expe* enced swimmers. vriiler There are four sisters in the m family, but none except Kathleen attained prominence in the world, though one is a good swi The mother also is a very keen -mber porter of the sport and iiS a® of the committee of the Ki^ l She also managed the tours o Stockley and her own daugß™-r Australia and through New ze . _