Vale Sir Peter Snell - New Zealand's Sportsperson of the 20th Century

It is a measure of the impact Sir Peter Snell made on the athletics world that the world record he set for 800m, on a grass track at the now-defunct Lancaster Park in Christchurch, remains the New Zealand record 57 years later.

On February 3, 1962, Snell ran a time of 1m 44.3s for the 800m and while at it, he also broke the world half-mile record. This a week after breaking the world mile record at Cook's Gardens in Wanganui with his time of 3m 54.4s, the first four-minute mile run on New Zealand soil.

That was Peter Snell, a strong, powerful runner whose sustained speed allowed him to dominate middle distance running during the first five years of the 1960s. 

Based on the Arthur Lydiard mileage he put into his legs, he had the strength to achieve success in clusters: his three world records in a week in 1962, his Empire Games gold medals in the half-mile and mile at Perth later that same year and his two Olympic gold medals in the 800m and 1500m at Tokyo in 1964, followed soon after back in Auckland by another world mile record of 3m 54.1s and the world 1000m record.

On top of that, he several times visited the United States to take on their best runners in traditional track running and on boards on the indoor circuit.

Snell, as time has shown, was a phenomenon achieving success like very few individual sportspeople from New Zealand have managed.

Yet, at the same time, he was his own man. His disputes with Lydiard, when they had differences of opinion, were a demonstration of that although Snell remained a Lydiard disciple throughout his life.

He was concerned during his competitive years that he hadn't made the best of his schooling and that drove his later commitment to academia and the PhD he achieved in future years. That involved moving off shore but he retained a connection with the country and his achievements were acknowledged in various sports facilities named after him and with suitable bronze statues created.

He was judged New Zealand's Sportsperson of the 20^th Century and there was never any dispute that he deserved the honour.

That can be measured in the fact that his Tokyo Olympic double success has never been repeated.

From an era before the modern massive media attention that makes even ordinary sportspeople household names, Snell was a genuine sporting hero. Others had high profiles like Sir Murray Halberg, Sir Colin Meads, Sir Brian Lochore, Sir Wilson Whineray and a horse named Cardigan Bay, but Sir Peter Snell enjoyed the highest-profile of all.

His impact and achievements in his area of expertise may never be repeated.

Norman Harris, one of New Zealand's great sportswriters

Sad to learn today of the death of New Zealand-born athletics writer Norman Harris.

Harris, 75, recorded the heady days of the Peter Snell-Murray Halberg era of New Zealand athletics' golden years in a level of sportswriting that has seldom been matched.

He emigrated to Britain in the late-1960s and worked for The Sunday Times.

During his time in New Zealand he contributed a significant collection of books on athletics.

Two of his earliest efforts were: Lap of Honour (published 1963), recording some of the less well known feats of athletics involving New Zealanders, and The Legend of Lovelock (1964), the first published biography of New Zealand's first Olympic Games athletics gold medalist, Jack Lovelock

It was in Lap of Honour that athletes like miler Randolph Rose from the 1920s, Bill Savidan, the winner of a thrilling six miles at the first Empire Games in 1930, and the three-mile/six-mile double winner at the third Empire Games in Sydney, Cecil Matthews, were brought to life for a new generation of sports fans who may never otherwise have known of the feats of these athletes.

But the list didn't stop there: Stan Lay's javelin throwing, Doreen Lumley's sprinting and Doug Harris' half-mile running were described.

And the Olympic Games feats of Lovelock, long jumper extraordinaire Yvette Williams and road walker Norman Read are also feature along with the products of the Lydiard school of middle and distance running that Harris knew so intimately: Halberg, Snell, Ray Puckett and Barry Magee.

The Legend of Lovelock made use of Lovelock's extensive diaries and scrapbooks at Timaru Boys' High School and added to the rich literature surrounding New Zealand's athletics champions.

Along the way he found time to produce some superb booklets which outlined more achievements of other Empire and Olympic Games competitors. These were the Silver Fern series: Silver Fern in Perth (1962), Silver Fern in Tokyo (1964), Silver Fern in Europe (1965) and Silver Fern in Kingston (1966). A record of the 1963 season was described as a New Zealand Athletics Almanack but it was really Silver Fern in 1963 in literary drag.

Of these publications it is not only track and field that is described but cycling, weight-lifting, fencing, rowing at al.

In his Kingston British Empire and Commonwealth Games effort, his description of Peter Welsh's brilliant win in the 3000m steeplechase still stacks up. What a shame film no longer seems to be available of this race. It was one of the classics when a medical student from Otago University took on the guns of the distance and blew them apart in the greatest race of his career.

 

Harris also described the success of the forgotten miler, the man who gets left off all the lists of New Zealanders to have succeeded in middle-distance events, Ian Studd, the bronze medalist in the mile in Jamaica.

His Silver Fern in Europe is notable for the way in which he recorded the decline of Snell who suffered a series of defeats that eventually led to his retirement. But there was also a superb description of a race involving the man he would eventually make the subject of a full book, Neville Scott, the alcoholic three-mile runner who never achieved the sort of fame that could have been his.

Harris also combined with legendary Australian distance runner Ron Clarke to write The Lonely Breed which took the Lap of Honour approach and applied it to world athletics. His description of the Modesto clash between Snell and American upstart Jim Beatty in 1963 is another fine example of Harris' abilities.

But athletics was not his only forte.

He wrote books about soccer's Charlton Brothers, Bobby and Jack, and also about New Zealanders who had made it overseas in The Fly Away People. He also wrote cricket and a small paperback, Cricket's Greatest Matches was one effort, and a description of the Johannesburg Test match involving the famous Boxing Day/Tangiwai train disaster story of Bob Blair was another recent book.

He latterly returned to his New Zealand origins to write Beyond Cook's Gardens, the scene of Peter Snell's first four-minute mile on New Zealand soil, which also happened to break Herb Elliott's world record of 3min54.5s.

And amongst it all was a tale of his own efforts to make it, firstly as a runner, only to be cut down by an Achilles tendon snap, and then his bid to make it is a cyclist, in his Champion of Nothing.

There is no doubt that Norman Harris was the greatest single influence in my becoming so involved in sports history, and sports writing. We did meet, a few summers back, courtesy of Dr Graeme Woodfield, the writer of Jack Lovelock, Athlete and Doctor. It was nice to be able to thank him for the role he played in helping me choose an immensely satisfying career.

May future generations of young sports fans be similarly fortunate in finding such positive direction in pursuit of their interests.

Vale Norman Harris.

Sir Peter Snell recalls his Tokyo double 50 years on

Sir Peter Snell was clearly an athletics freak, yet it can only be wondered what might have been missed had he not been inclined to check out what Arthur Lydiard had to offer as a coach.

Fifty years on from his finest expression of his abilities on the track in Tokyo at the 1964 Olympic Games, Peter Snell's feat in winning the 800m-1500m double has never been repeated by a male.

Clearly the most dominant middle-distance runner of his era, Snell achieved at a level that can only be admired, all the moreso with the passage of time. That the 800m world record he set, on grass, at Christchurch's Lancaster Park in 1962 still stands as New Zealand's best time over the distance is testimony enough to his class.

There were many other aspects of his career that demand admiration.

But it is his moves after competing in Tokyo, and then coming home to set two more world records at meetings in Auckland in November 1964, that provide a demonstration of his drive.

His subsequent move to study in the United States, and his achieving a doctorate in exercise physiology is just as inspiring in demonstrating that in spite of not making the most of his ability in academic terms in his youth, he was able to achieve subsequently.

It was no mean feat to be named New Zealand's Sportsman of the 20th Century but it was just one of a host of accolades this remarkable Kiwi achieved.

He spoke with me as a celebration of his Tokyo success 50 years on at Radio Live in Auckland in September 2014.

You can listen here: 

Sir Peter Snell Interview