REVIVING ROWING

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 818, 12 November 1929, Page 15

REVIVING ROWING

INSTEAD OF MARATHON SWIM CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBITION If the directors of the Canadian National Exhibition want to do something f,or sport, why do they not revive rowing? Toronto gave Hanlan to the world, and we have no doubt that there are still many mute inglorious Ifanlans in Canada who are only waiting for proper encouragement, says a Canadian exchange. Rowing has, besides, this advantage—that it can be kept in sight all the way, and there is not a dull moment in it from start to ; finish. Tho marathon swim has not done tlie Toronto Fair any particular good. On the contrary, it has been a sourco of ill feeling for tlie three years it has been in operation. The first year there was tlie feeling that Vierkoetter, a German, should not have won the race when there were so many of our Allies in thc Great War contending against him. Tho second year, after Vierkoetter had become a citizen of Toronto, there was the feeling that no man should take the prize from him simply because lie could stay in the cold water a few minutes longer. Tho third year, when Vierkoetter had shown himself a good' sport and a thorough gentleman, there was the feeling that Mr. Keating, of New York, was a poor fish fur refusing to shake hands with his defeated rival, and using his first spare breath to launch a grudge at him over the radio. And all these years there was the feeling, like a deep underground swell, that George Young the Toronto lad, a fast swimmer, but a slow thinker, should have won the race from those who had more brains and greater courage. The best thing that can happen to the Canadian National Exhibition—the best thing for its prestige and the box office, is to have thc marathon swim go somewhere else. The only advertisement the Toronto Fair needs is its general merit, and its record for inj structive entertainment based on 55 years of increasing success.