The sun., 1919-10-12
LOCAL MERMAIDSIN
UNDISPUTED SWAY
Misses Bleibtrey, Boyle and
Smith Twins Are World
Champions.
MISS LORD A CONFER
New York Girls Prove Ability
by Beating Misses Durack
and Wylie.
MISS LORD A CONFER

New York's girl swimmers have as
sumed International leadership. Recent
events have demonstrated the fact con-
clusively.
The Misses Charlotte Boyle. Ethelda
BleIbtrey and Ruth and Eleanor Smith.
all of the New York women's Swimming
Association. may claim with assurance
world's championship titles at 100 and
40 yards free style and 100 and 200
yards breast stroke swimming respec-
lively. for they have earned them In
actual competition, and there is evidence
eplenty that the local mermaids top the
field also at the other free style distances
and in back stroke swimming.
Miss Boyle holds at present both the
indoor and outdoor national champion
ships at 100 yards and she recently de-
feated easily at the distance Miss Nina
wylie. winner last winter of the Austria
liam sprinting title. so there is no deny
ing her right to supreme laurels, for
Australia and the United States have for
some time led all nations In swimming
for the gentle sex.
Miss Fannie Duracl, the famous star
from the Antipodes, who some years ago
set a worlds mark for the century. still
unbroken, has refused in the last few
seasons to meet either home or foreign
rivals at any distance shorter than the
furlong, which is tantamount to con-
fession Of known inability TO win. Miss
Olga Dorfner Of Philadelphia, the Amer
lean indoor recordist. has retired from
competition. There is none to dispute
Miss Boyle's leadership.
Conquers Australian queen.
Miss Bleibtrey disposed of all possible
claimants to honors at 440 yards in cap
turing the national title at tho distance
Mt Manhattan Beach last month. She
displayed her superiority over Miss Du-
rack. previously the recognized peer, by
beating her full five yards to the line,
and she lowered the indoor and outdoor
American standards In the race. thereby
proving herself more speedy than any
homo star who failed to start against
her. Her earlier victory In the national
indoor 500 yard championship offers cor
roborative evidence of her supremacy
also.
1t deserves mention too that in the
metropolitan quarter-mile test Miss
Bleibtrey went IL seconds faster than
in the national event, over the same
course, which Indicates she could have
outswam the, Australian even more de-
cieively in the latter engagement had
she not played safe and husbanded her
energy for the final dash. Miss Bleib-
trey's youth and inexperience raise the
belief that she will not easily be shorn
Of her laurels now she has taken the
van. She is barely II years old, and
she has been racing only sixteen months
Her PROCESS in the immediate future
should be very rapid.
The misses Ruth and Eleanor Smith,
sixteen-year-old twin sisters, have es-
tablished their International supremacy
at the breast stroke by winning national
titles, setting American records and
lowering in actual contest the colors of
Miss Wylie, the Australian champion
and 100 yard worlds recordist. Miss
Ruth holds the national title and stand
ard at the century, Miss Eleanor at 200
yards, and II needs be added that the
latter's 200 yard mark is the fastest
ever made by a member OF the sex
under any conditions, but cannot be
granted worlds brackets because set In
a 90 foot pool.
The rules OF the International Fedora.
ton Of Swimmers prescribes baths Of
not less than rs feet for worlds records
The twins victory over Miss Wylie
was convincing. They took her measure
In a 125-yard handicap in which she
conceded to them three seconds apiece
and won the race in dead heat. sbeating
the Australian by exactly seven seconds,
or four seconds on actual performance
The contest was held over a straight
away still water stretch, under the iden-
teal conditions found invariably in Aus
tralia.
In view of Miss Ruth having done
the best average work at 100 yards, Miss
Eleanor at 200 yards. II seems logical
to name them worlds champions at tho
respective distances. Miss Wylie never
completes with the breast stroke at 200
yards. 80 her downfall came at her
chosen course.
In comparing Australian and Amer
lean women swimmers at the free STYLE
courses not hitherto mentioned-2eQ.
$50 yards and one mile--there Is, I'm
fortunately, no reliable data available.
True. Miss Durask's records appear
hopelessly to outclass our own, but SO
did her 440 yard mark, which did not
prevent her suffering defeat in competi-
ton.
The fact is that the baths used In
Australia are SO much faster than our
open water courses that figures officially
listed really afford no safe criterion for
Judging of relative ability. Those who
witnessed the triumph of our girls at
Manhattan Beach, however, and noted
how easily 1t was achieved, will not havs
serious doubts concerning the outcome
OF races between the Australian and the
LEGAL stare at any distance.
Mrs. Finney. New Yorker.
As for che home rivals, there Ia just
one mermaid whose performances make
her a dangerous rival to Miss Bleibtrey
and Miss Boyle. and she is also a New
Yorker and still represents the Womens
$. A., though temporarily on the coast
Mrs. Claire Galligan Ffnney, the all
around national champion of 1918.
In back stroke swimming all national
and worlds records are shared by Miss
Bleibtrey and the Smith twins with the
exception or 100 yard indoor mark
credited to Mrs Frances Cowolls
Schroth OF San Francisco. AS the latter
was made under unusually favorable
conditions II II open to question whether
IL represents as fast swimming as Miss
Bleibtrey's outdoor time. which "a only
1-5 seconds slower and was set over
q b0-yard open water course, with a
treadwater turn.
The latest feat OF the women's 8. A.
relay quartet, made up of the Misses
Boyle, Bleibtrey, Leslie Bunyan and
Ahce Lord, In hanging up a worlds 400
yard team record of 4 minutes and SO
seconds which beat by more than 20
seconds all previous performances, irre-
spective Of conditions shows that the
local water queens brook no rivalry in
sns branch OF competition either. Miss