Malolos

A bugle blared, the Stars & Stripes were raised, a diver swan-dived from a high platform, and a dozen white doves fluttered away to "tell the four corners of the earth" that St. Louis was host to a national swimming meet. The doves (actually squab bought from a local poultry dealer) got no farther than the four corners of the pool, but the 54th annual men's outdoor swimming championships went ahead just the same.

Stars of the meet were a team of Hawaiians, coached by ambitious Soichi Sakamoto, a U.S.-born Japanese. The flashiest team seen in the U.S. in many years, Sakamoto's boys include the Brothers Nakamo (Kiyoshi and Bunmei), who learned to swim in the irrigation ditches of the sugar plantation where they worked with their Japanese parents. Last year, at the national U.S. meet, Brother Kiyoshi, a University of Hawaii student, outswam mainland topnotchers in the 440-and 880-yd. free-style events, and Brother Bunmei took the mile.

Last week Brother Kiyoshi chalked up another double: the 800-meter and 1,500-meter championships (all events have been changed to metric distances this year). But this year he had more than his kid brother to contend with. In the 400-meter free-style his title was copped by up-&-coming, 17-year-old Bill Smith Jr., a kinky-red-haired fellow Hawaiian (part English), who a few months ago broke the world's records for 200, 300 and 400 meters. Teammate Smith, nicknamed Malolo (flying fish) by his native playmates because he has no Hawaiian name, also swam away last week with the 200-meter crown, from under the nose of its defender, Chicago's Otto Jaretz.

Try as he did, Jaretz could not even keep his 100-meter title from the flying Hawaiians. Takashi Hirose took that. And Jose Balmores, another Islander, took the breaststroke and medley championships. When the final points were tallied, Coach Sakamoto's boys had won the U.S. team title for the third year in a row--with 71 points to 21 for the second-place Chicago Towers Club.

Only events in which mainland swimmers sparkled were the backstroke (at which Chicago's Adolph Kiefer has no peer) and the diving championships. Kiefer won the backstroke sprint crown (100 meters) for the seventh time. Ohio State's Earl Clark, national collegiate champion, won both the high and low diving titles.

In defending his high dive, Clark had a hard time convincing the judges that his flips were superior to those of Sammy Lee, a gum-chewing Korean representing Occidental College. Lee finished with 105 points to Clark's 107.

No world's records were broken last week. Reason: St. Louis was so hot (100DEG) that the water in its sun-cooked Maplewood Pool registered 85DEG.

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