AUSTRALIAN VISITOR.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 336, 18 January 1937, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN VISITOR.

Ivy Benns May Be At New Zealand Championships

A possible swimming competitor at the New Zealand senior championships in February is Miss Ivy Benns Of-Victoria who is at present visitlag the Dominion and will be staying with relatives at Levin. • Mies Benns won the Australian junior 100 yards championship in k 934, and recently filled second place in the Victorian 100 yards backstroke championship to Miss Madge Nixon who was the first girl to beat Miss Bonnie Mealing.

The visitor’s best time for 100 yards is 66sec, which is only 1 l-ssec outside the New Zealand ladies’ record, and for the 100 yards backstroke her best is 1.17 2-5, less than a second slower than Miss Ena Stockley’s New Zealand record. ■ Undoubtedly Miss Benns has only to reproduce these times to give a good account of herself in the New Zealand championship meeting. She intends to concentrate largely on backstroke this season. Commenting on the proposed tour 'by a team of Victorian lady swim mers, ' Miss Benns said that Miss Irene Donnet, the Australian ladies’ diving champion, was a very good diver. She is coached by her father, and is a member of the Richmond Club. Madge Nixon has just recovered from an illness, and is beginning to show signs of her best form, while Valerie George, the Victorian breaststroke champion, who is keen to visit New Zealand, is a very fine exponent of this stroke.