HALL OF FAME TO HONOUR OLYMPIAN BATTERSBY
Former Olympic silver medallist Syd Battersby is to be inducted
into the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) based
in Florida after being honoured posthumously as a pioneer
within the sport.
Born in 1887, Battersby swam at a time when other Swimming
Hall of Fame members Henry Taylor, John Jarvis and Frank Beaurepaire
were dominating world competition.
Sandwiched between Taylor and Beaurepaire, Battersby won
the 1500m silver medal in 1908. He set three world records
in freestyle and won five ASA National Championships. In 1912
he won an Olympic bronze relay medal.
Battersby was nominated in 2000 by US swimming Coach Peter
Daland, an ISHOF Selection Committee Member, and will be formerly
inducted in May.
Battersby started off his swimming career with Wigan SC and
first came to prominence at the national championships in
1906 when he finished third in the 500yd and 880yd Freestyle
events establishing himself as a middle-long distance specialist.
At the 1908 Olympics he competed in the 400m and 1500m Freestyle.
In the 400m he didn't make the final but broke the Olympic
record in the heats with a 5:48.8. In the 1500m he led for
the majority of the race only being passed by Taylor in the
final 200m but he finished with an Olympic silver medal before
he actually won an ASA title.
In qualifying for the final he had set an Olympic Record
of 23:42.8 and at the end of the 1500m he continued swimming
and established a new record for the mile.
His best performances came in the years between Olympiads.
His first world record, late in 1908, was for the 440yd Freestyle
in 5:26.4 and he followed it up in 1909 with four ASA titles
- 220yd, 440yd, 880yd and the mile, also setting a world record
for the now obsolete 300yd free with a 3:31.4.
He won one further ASA title - the Long Distance in 1910
- and in a 400m race in London on 21st September 1911 he erased
Henry Taylor's 1908 winning World Record from the record books.
He also had five successive wins in the Mersey Mile Championship
from 1907-1911.
In 1911 a Festival of Empire Sports was held at Crystal Palace,
a forerunner of the Empire Games of 1930. There were two swimming
events in the cold open-air lake and in the mile Freestyle
Syd finished a close second to George Hodgson of Canada, the
future Olympic double gold medallist.
By the time of the 1912 Games in Stockholm he had moved to
Amateur SC, London but he was passed his best and although
he competed in the 400m and 1500m again he didn't final. In
the 4 x 200m relay he won a bronze medal.
After the First World War he continued to swim and qualified
for the final British Olympic trials held in his native Southport.
Although he competed in the 400yd and 1650yd Freestyle events
aged 32 he didn't make the final team for the Antwerp Olympics.
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