Evening star., 1948-08-08
Verdeur Sets Record
lin Breaststroke VIM;
Ann Curtis Shines
Associotsd Press Sports Writer


, WEMBLEY, England. Aug. T.
American men completed theil
grand slam of the Olympic swim.
ming and diving championships to.
day and the girl water aces from
the U. S. A. topped the Danish
women in their scramble for the un'
of1cial team championship.
Ann Curtis, tall, blond, 22-year.
old girl from San Francisco ane
the University of California, con-
quered the Danes who had beater
her before, to win the 40e-metel
freestyle in Olympic record-break.
ing time on the closing water sport!
program of the 194s games.
The Americans, men and women
carried of IL Olympic crowns, in.
cluding an eight-event sweep o.
mems competition and four of sever
III the womens division.
Two of the five women's swim.
ming victories could be credited tt
the newly y-aroused Miss Curtis wht
won the metric quarter mile by
herself and swan the all-importan;
anchor leg on the 400-meter relay
quartet.
Americans Far Ahead.
American divers already had
swept everything in their spring.
board and high platform compet!-
ton except for two third places. In
one Of those the United States lost
its chance through a practice ac-
cident to Miller Anderson of Ohio
State.
Team totals, always unofficial in
Olympic games, gave the Ameri-
can men 122 points to 81 for run
nerup Hungary. France with 13
and Australia with 13 followed
among the - nations who scored.
For the United States women
the point table showed a total of
68 as compared to 81 for second
place Denmark and "a for Holland
Hungary had IL and Australia and
Britain tied for fifth with 9. Aus
tria had 5. France 4, Belgium 3 and
Sweden and Brazil each 2.
Eight new Olympic records were
established. including one world
standard by the mems 800-metel
relay team at S:46 and another
Olympic mark was tied. Only mems
1,500-meter free style and men s
l00-meter backstroke records es-
capped unscarred.
Six Records for U. S. Team.
OF those eight shiny new figures
six were hung up by the Star.
Spangled brigade of Water Stars
four by the men and two by the wo-
men.
Americans won all three final
races on the closing water sports
program before a capacity crowd OF
5000 at the end of more than a week
OF competition.
BY now the British customers
were getting used to encore after
encore of The Star Spangled Banner
in salute to American winners. The
band was getting pretty good at it,
too.
Joe =, Verdeur, the 22-year-old
7 world record -heldir1g butterfly
stroker from Philadelphia and At
lantic City. won the 2OO-meter
oreaststroke championship in Olyna-
pic record time of 239.3. ~. II
He thus beat the, mark set at
2:425 by Tetsuo Hamuro of Japan
at the 1896 Berlin Olympics and
his own new Olympic record of 2:4O
made in an early heat. He was far
short of his own 2:3O world record
made at New Haven, Conn, this
summer.
u. S. Sweeps Breaststroke.
Americans made a sweep of the
breaststroke behind Verdeur. Pow
erful Keith Carter of Purdue was
second and Bob Sohl of the Uni
versity of Michigan was third.
Verdeur's racing triumph was
the fifth straight for the American
speedsters-the seventh counting
the diving victories scored earlier
in the week by Bruce Harlan of
Ohio State University on the spring
board and DR.. Sammy Lee of Pasa
dena, Calf, from the high plat
form.
That left 1t up to 17-year- -old
Jimmy McLane, the thin 150-
pound endurance swimmer from
Akron, Ohio, and Andover Academy
to complete the slam.
Young Jimmy did 1t without a
challenge in the 1,500-meter free
style.
McLane was timed at 19:ls.5 in
the metric mile and missed making
record. The standing record is
ls:12.4 made by Kusuo Kitamura
Of japan at Los Angeles in 1882.
John Marshall of Australia was
second to McLane in the 1900, fin
ishing half the pool behind, with
G. Nitro of Hungary third. G. Csor.
daas of Hungary was fourth, M. Sti-
petic of Yugoslavia fifth, Forbes
Norris Of Harvard University sixth
Don Bland of Britain seventh, and
Bill Heusner, jr., of Chicago eighth
Miss Curtis accounted for one o1
the two new Olympic records set
by the victorious American girls