Sir Peter Snell

This week is the 50th anniversary of Peter Snell’s world record races. His first record was at Cook’s Gardens in Wanganui at the end of January 1962 when more than half of the people in that city came to see him race one mile. (1 mile is 1608m.) He broke the world record by running under 4 minutes. This of course was on a grass track. A week later, on February 3rd, he broke the 880 yards (804m) world record. In the same race, when he passed 800m, he also broke that world record. His time was 1:44.3, which was faster than the 2008 winner at the Beijing Olympics, 46 years later.

He had already surprised the world by winning the gold medal for the 800m at the Rome Olympics in 1960. This was not a surprise for his coach, Arthur Lydiard, though. Arthur Lydiard became famous as a coach because of his success with many New Zealand runners, including Snell. Lydiard believed in long distance training to build up strength and endurance.

Snell went on to win two gold medals at the Perth Commonwealth Games in 1962 and two gold medals – for the 800m and the 1500m – at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. He was voted New Zealand Sports Champion of the twentieth century.

Last Saturday was a special international athletics meeting at Cook’s Gardens and tomorrow there is another one, this time in Christchurch, to celebrate those world records 50 years ago.

Vocabulary

to break a record – to run faster than the previous best time
strength (noun); strong (adjective)
endurance – running for a long time without getting tired

Metric measures – In 1967, New Zealand athletics used metric distances e.g. 800 m instead of yards and miles. From 1969, the country used the metric system for distances, heights, weights and money.

Question

Sir Peter Snell is a hero to many people in New Zealand. Who is your hero and why did you choose that person? (Note that a hero can be female. The word ‘heroine’ is usually a female character in a novel.)