Van Vliet fastest at 200m breast-stroke

SWIMMING - Petronella Van Vliet, Dutch and European champion, won the 200m breast-stroke final after a thrilling race. Using the orthodox breast-stroke, she set a time of 2min. 57.2sec., thereby beating the Olympic record of 3min. 1.9sec.

During the first three lengths Eva Novak from Hungary was Van Vliet’s strongest opponent. Both swimmers seemed to have the race under control, until the very last length. Nancy Lyons, an 18-year old schoolgirl from Australia, came storming through. Increasing her speed with every stroke, she passed Novak and just failed to catch the Dutchwoman by a fifth of a second.

An even smaller margin caused some controversy over the places five and six. Adriana De Groot from Holland was officially placed fifth, although Britain’s only representative Elizabeth Church had swum the 200m one tenth of a second faster.

1 VAN VLIET, P. ...................... Holland........................... 2 57.2
2 LYONS, B. ................................ Australia ...................... 2 57.7
3 NOVAK, E. ............................... Hungary....................... 3 0.2
4 Szekely, E................................... Hungary....................... 3 2.5
5 de Groot, A................................. Holland........................ 3 6.2
6 Church, E.................................... Great Britain ................ 3 6.1
7 Horn, A....................................... Holland......................... 3 7.5
8 Hansen, J. ................................... Denmark....................... 3 8.1

All athletes who competed in the 200 metres Breaststroke