Golden Girls Of

New Caledonia

There may be a pattern in the swim ming results of the four Games, and if the pattern is that the dominance by New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea is on the way to being broken, then that will be a good thing for the rest of the Pacific.

Take a look at the record: In Suva, Fiji made almost a clean sweep, with only PNG picking up some of the crumbs. In Noumea the New Cale donians reversed the trend with a vengeance, taking every gold in both men’s and women’s events, with Fiji and PNG picking up what little was left.

In Port Moresby New Caledonia’s women again got off with every gold,

and her men shared honours with PNG. Fiji was hardly in it.

In Papeete honours were almost even between New Caledonia and PNG the PNG men getting off with every gold, and the New Cale donian women taking out every gold but one, 200 metres breaststroke, which went to Fiji.

This gave Fiji its first swimming gold since 1963, and may indicate a return to some real competition.

Fiji’s gold was no fluke—ls-year-old Julie Murphy (who has since turned 16) deliberately went after it, an nouncing beforehand that she intended to take it.

Fiji’s medal-winner Olive Pickering could not attend these Games, but if she had, Fiji may have made better inroads into the brilliant Caledonians, who took 31 medals to PNG’s 20.

The most brilliant of them all is, of course, 18-year-old Marie-Jose Kersaudy, the real reason why New Caledonian women have dominated now for three successive Games.

Marie-Jose staggered everybody in Noumea in 1966 by taking out no less than seven gold swimming medals, repeating the feat in 1969 in Port Moresby. Well, she made it a hat trick in Papeete with yet another seven—making her easily top medal winner in Games history. It is doubt ful if any one athlete will ever again win 21 golds in the Pacific.

The charming Marie-Jose says she is now going to retire from com petitive swimming (she said the same thing in Port Moresby), because she is soon off to university in France.

No doubt this time she means it.

Team-mates Martine Cadet, Maria- Dolores Anewy and Marlene Manner should be pleased at the opportunity of climbing up from the bottom rungs of the medal podium, where they appear to have been permanent fixtures for years.

The three musketeers who held the men’s swimming to ransom on behalf of PNG were Nigel Cluer, Charlie Martin and Max Mowen.

Cluer and Martin made a further name for themselves by being easily the scruffiest-looking swimmers at the pool, wearing anything at hand around the pool or on the podium.

Charlie Martin is a 16-year-old mixed-race prodigy originally from Lae and now living in Port Moresby.

He is an all-round sportsman and could compete in other events in Guam. He took six gold and two silver at Papeete. He is the nearest

thing to an indigenous star that we’ve seen.

Fiona Mooney was the only PNG girl to take an individual medal— the bronze in the 800 metres free style.

French Polynesia and Guam were easily the most improved swimmers, and competition, one hopes, is likely to come from this direction in Guam.

Proper pool facilities and training are the basic requirements for good swimming times—those territories without them have no hope, because natural swimmers aren’t good enough.

Thanks to successive Games, Noumea, Port Moresby and Papeete now have decent facilities, and Guam’s pool is apparently adequate.

Fiji has allowed itself to fall behind in facilities since 1963.

Golden girl Marie-Jose Kersaudy, 21 golds in three Games, and she's 18.

Julie Murphy gives a thumbs-up after taking Fiji's first swimming gold medal since 1963. Below, PNG's Charlie Martin, who won six gold medals.