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Barrie Kellaway
NSW and Australian freestyle
champion
‘I used to train at Granville pool every
day from about 5pm, when most people had gone home for tea. At that time there
was no one I could train with – no one in my age group could keep up with me –
so I just had to train by myself. There were no training lanes in those days, so
I just had to swim straight through the other swimmers.’
Barrie Kellaway (born 1934) began
swimming at Granville aged nine, and won his first State title the following
year. Barrie joined the Granville Amateur Swimming Club and was trained by Tom
Penny, Ray Austin and his own father before joining Forbes Carlile’s Palm Beach
swimming club in about 1948. Kellaway grew up close to Granville Pool,
alongside fellow champions Barry Darke and John Devitt, and trained here every
afternoon until he stopped swimming in about 1952.
At the 1947 NSW championships, Barrie
won the 55, 110, 220 and 440yd Junior titles. His first national title came the
following year, when he won both the Australian Junior 440yd and the NSW Junior
440 and 880yd freestyle championships. Between 1944 and 1952, Kellaway won at
least ten State and four Australian championships, and represented Australia at
the 1950 British Empire Games in New Zealand. At the 1951 Australian
championships in Melbourne, Barrie swam brilliantly to win the 440yd freestyle
title ahead of French champion Alex Jany and local champion Barry Darke.
Photos:
1.
Barrie diving into North Sydney pool, about 1949
2.
Barrie Kellaway in his backyard at John Street Granville, about 1949
3. The
NSW team at the Australian championships in Melbourne,1951. Top row, left to
right: Joe McCann, David Hawkins, Frank Murphy, Barrie Kellaway, Rex Albury, Bob
Barry, Ron Sharpe, Kevin Newell, unknown, Ralph Jobson, Leslie Thicknesse.
Middle row: Pam Hopkins, unknown, Kay Hayman, Noeline Matchett, Pam Hull, Janet
Johnson, Beryl Hosking, Noeline Maclean. Bottom row: Barry Darke, Les O ’Keefe,
Jack Barnett
4.
Barrie Kellaway (on left), after beating Canadian swimmer Leo Portelance in the
second heat of the 1650 yards race at the British Empire Games in Auckland,1950
5.Barrie Kellaway, about 1949 Photos courtesy of Barrie Kellaway
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