Respectfully, how did you glean this information?
Were you a personal friend or relative?
Respectfully, how did you glean this information?
Were you a personal friend or relative?
SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:
RIP mr Snell! I salute you! One of the GREAT in running history. I have read one of his favorite workouts was 20 x 400m .....
- In eternity we are all equal -
Yes he did them on road
Montesquieu wrote:
A great runner; a decent yet distinguished human being.
A true gentleman.
The greatest.
I predicted here 10 years ago that Snell would pass on in possession of the NZ NR for the 800. So he does. 57 years and 10 months on.
In tribute to the greatness of Peter Snell I quote his own words from "No Bugles, No Drums" from one of his greatest races.
Christchurch, 3 Feb 1962, 880yards.
"In less than 50 yards, I realised we were travelling at a suicidal pace and that the pace-making was going to be of no benefit to me at all. In desperation I yelled after Barry[Robinson], "Wait!" but it was futile. He didn't hear me.
The track was hard and fast and I was able to stretch out and keep him within five yards down the back straight without actually sprinting, although I was not far from it. I drew on a little more effort round the bottom curve to trail him coming up the straight. In my effort to make this contact, I completely lost track of my pace judgement and I listened hard to pick up the threads as we came up to the bell. I expected to hear the timekeeper chanting seconds beginning with "fifty..." but the first call I heard was "forty..." The fifty came up as I went past them.
Now, for some unaccountable reason, Barry moved out a lane. I was thinking with particular clarity now -- probably stimulated by the fantastic time -- and instead of being shocked into easing or coasting, I quickly realised that I was feeling as good as or better than I had in many of my other races when I'd passed through the quarter two or three seconds slower.
So, through some crazy impulse, I threw away all text-book procedure and sprinted. This was pure effort against the stopwatch now. Into the back straight, I still felt myself traveling fast I was sharply aware that I was well inside both world records as far as I'd gone. It was only a matter of being able to continue,
This particular problem didn't present itself until the bgeinning of the bottome curve. Then, like a wave, the effect of that first 660 -- run in 1:16.9 -- hit me. This was the moment when the real effort of the race was needed. I felt myself slowing. I felt I had come to the end of my run -- and I was only just swinging into the straight. In a frantic effort to keep my legs going, to maintain drive, I wobbled and I was fighting to regain control, to sqeeze out the extra ounce of speed as I struggled up the straight on dying legs.
But after going through the tapes, I didn't need anyone to tell me the times. I knew I must have gone inside the records. There were men running from all over the place, mostly with cameras, and in a semi-detatched way I watched the other runners come in. Dupree was second and then Bork. Then I ran off into a victory lap. I was unconcerned about the particular time until it came over the public address system some time later.
The most remarkable feature of the race was the speed and ease with which I recovered. I've experienced this before after good performances, which suggests the ability to recover really stems from the mind. When you know you've really achieved something, the body seems to relax into a nerveless state in which it's apparently unaware of any distress and in which functions effortlessly return to normal.
The odd way the race was run is perhaps shown most graphically by the 220 yard fractions. I ran 24.8 for the first crazy 220; 26.2 for the second, easing back then after the first mad rush but still trying ot catch Barry; 25.9 for the third, after realising that I could get th eredord; and 28.2 for the fourth, struggling to get to the finishing tapes. These added up to 1:45.1 for the half with 1:44.3 for the 800 metres on the way. I broke the half by 1.7 seconds and the 800 by 1.4 seconds.
As a performance, it was one that, right up to the final in Tokyo, I never thought I could do again."
A supreme performance, then and now.
RIP to a true legend in the sport.
sedentary life wrote:
heart problems wrote:
Heart problems. Too many miles.
I call BS, but even if it's true he lived a long quality life to 81.
Smokers smoke, drinkers drink, eaters eat.
We can either sit like sedentary dogs or become legends in our own times and for eternity, and 1:44.3 on a grass track is legend.
Are you saying that you are a legend? And if not are you saying that you are sedentary?
Sad news indeed. One of the finest middle distance runners to ever set foot on the track.
Video from a couple of years ago of PS competing at table tennis and talking about it.
The comment he makes about the motivating effect of feeling that he is improving, even at his age, struck me. Although we can never recapture the performances of our youth, through cycles of backing off/ramping up, we can experience the reward and satisfaction of improvement, time and again.
Somewhere in the many video bios of PS, there is a short clip of him playing tennis (or racquet ball) at a very young age, before he was a track star, and it is very impressive.
In case anyone was curious about the No Bugles, No Drums book, it's on Amazon Kindle now. Peter Snell has been an inspiration to me.
Do you mean the stuff in the first paragraph about the cardiac and driving issues? I got it from several places but mostly from online New Zealand newspapers and from a friend who was a friend of Peter's. and from Barry Magee, who is a good friend of mine. I did know Peter ever so slightly but it's been at least fourteen years since we'd spoken.
Armstronglivs wrote:
I can recommend a fine drama-doco called "The Golden Hour", which dealt with the Snell-Halberg triumph in Rome '60. Snell (among others) is interviewed on the programme. Should be available on NZ television-on-demand if it hasn't already been downloaded to YouTube. Well worth watching.
+1 excellent programme. Here it is on vimeo.com
https://vimeo.com/244136994RIP great man
I clocked him about 10.8 in that 100 yards where he pulled a hamstring. Pretty good for a 38 year old former middle distance runner
RIP.
This needs a black page. White is too cheerful. One of the all time greats.
I was more than deeply saddened by the death of Peter Snell. He was obviously an inspiration to many but more than that he was a friend and a mentor to me.
During 1963 Peter, through Bert Nelson of Track and Field News, was invited to run in the US at the Modesto Relays against Jim Beatty. He stayed at my parent’s home in Los Altos, CA and we became friends. We played golf together, battled over the ping pong table and ran a 20 x 220 intervals workout at Angell Field with the last one timed in 22 seconds. He was humble and gracious but it was obvious that he loved the competition.
After that time, we lost touch but reconnected years later when he was living in Dallas. I had read a newspaper article with the headline “I’m Mindful of my Mortality”. Peter had been interviewed after some heart events and so I emailed him mentioning that he was still my hero and how, after college, I had adopted his running style of carrying my arms low and running with an exploding burst in the last 220 of a mile. I told him that I had recovered my enthusiasm for running again. Within 24 hours he replied and said that he had certainly remembered me and was happy that I was enjoying running again. He suggested that perhaps I try out orienteering as he was doing that and that he really liked it. He also told me that I was his “poster boy for the problems of collegiate track and field having to run so many doubles and triples which were meaningless”.
After that our communications became sporadic because he had become a huge celebrity. However, we never lost complete touch and because of his humanity, he will always be my #1 hero and inspiration.
Rest in peace my friend.
Great story , thanks!
His accomplishments will forever leave him in the discussion with Seb Coe and El G and the other mid-D greats in history, and even more importantly, it seems like he was a great all around person, kind and intelligent.
My condolences to those who knew him and all whom he inspired.
Pete MF Snell wrote:
Apparently he read letsrun. I saw a picture he had signed for someone and he had inserted MF between their first and last name.
Well since he posted on here about 10 years ago, he certainly did lurk LR. It was a response to Nobby (remember him).
I got Peter to admit his NZ XC title was his most satisfying win,
Ur welcome.
From Olympian to Scientist = read it if you want to understand the real Peter Snell RIP.
There was an interview with Rod Dixon, look quite sad. Bad year or two for Zealanders Quax, Yvette Williams and now Snell.
He was fantastic. Fare thee well Peter Snell, thank you for the inspiration.