‘He was the greatest of them all’
Kiwi middle distance running star Nick Willis pays homage to an incomparable legend. Marc Hinton reports.
Nick Willis has always chased the standard of the Kiwi running greats of previous generations. Except for one. For him the level that Peter Snell attained in his pomp was simply unattainable.
Willis, the two-time Olympic 1500 metres medallist shooting for one final Games appearance in Tokyo next year, joined his entire country in mourning the loss of the great Sir Peter Snell who died peacefully in his Dallas home, aged 80.
Willis won the Olympic silver medal for 1500m in Beijing in 2008 and added bronze in Rio de Janeiro eight years later. But what Snell achieved in winning three Games gold medals, including the 800-1500m double in Tokyo in 1964, and also setting numerous world records over the middle-distances while under the tutelage of Arthur Lydiard has always been something from another realm.
‘‘[Jack] Lovelock, [John] Walker, [Dick] Quax, [Murray] Halberg, [Rod] Dixon were all incredible, great runners, but Snell is the greatest,’’ Willis told Stuff from his altitude training base in Flagstaff, Arizona, yesterday. ‘‘Those are the best ever New Zealand runners. He’s the best ever among all runners in the world ever.
‘‘That’s a whole another level. They would all say the same thing.
‘‘A lot of my motivation in my career is to see how I can match up against the pantheon of New Zealand athletes. But there’s never been a sense of trying to be better than Peter Snell. There was never even a sense that was even possible.
‘‘You try to get as close to Walker as you can, or some of these other guys. It’s like NBA players always say Michael Jordan was always the best and you don’t need to be better than him.’’
Willis struggled to find the words to express his sense of loss when he heard of Snell’s death.
‘‘I tried to write a tweet earlier and I was sort of speechless,’’ he said. ‘‘I had just written ‘Peter Snell’, and just looking at his name the instant thing you think of is greatness. His name is etched into thought, especially in New Zealand but internationally as well in our sport. In New Zealand he’s the greatest of all time, no matter what the sport is.’’
Like so many runners, Willis found himself inspired by Snell, even though he was too young to have seen him race live. As a youngster looking for more information on his sport, he happened one day on Snell’s autobiography No Bugles No Drums.
‘‘I read that from cover to cover about five times that year,’’ recalled Willis. ‘‘That’s what provided me with all of the history that I learnt about our sport.
‘‘I went on to read a few more biographies about other New Zealand athletes but that was the one that resonated with me because there was the unknown factor, this kid from Opunake who played a bunch of different sports really well and met Arthur Lydiard, the incredible motivator and guy experimenting with these quite wacky ideas about running training which turned out to be the future of the sport. Peter was a great benefactor of that.’’
What Willis always admired was how Snell carried Lydiard’s legacy even beyond his incredible feats on the athletics track into the next phase of his life as a doctor of physiology in Texas.
‘‘That’s his legacy – putting the black singlet and silver fern on the minds of running and sports fans around the world but also keeping Arthur’s incredible knowledge of the sport and of training methods to what most of us use today all around the world.’’
The 36-year-old Willis, of course, never saw Snell race live, but feels like he did.
‘‘When he broke the world record at Cooks Gardens in 1962 my dad was a kid on the grass banks watching that race just down the road from his home,’’ he said. ‘‘Over the years when I watched on
‘‘He’s the best ever among all runners in the world ever.’’
the grainy footage I could imagine myself being on the banks because I’ve heard my dad tell that story all those years.
‘‘The power of his stride and way he ate up that track on that last lap on the back straight made you realise that running doesn’t just have be for those who are super light, tip-toe type running frames that just prance around the track.
‘‘He could just push off the ground and use his power to get away from his competitors and that resonated for those of us who came from more of a rugby background in New Zealand and were slightly bigger framed runners. Walker, Quax, Dixon, all of us were over six foot, and he gave us the belief it was possible.’’
Willis’ most lasting memory of Snell was when the great man agreed to be part of a Skype call
welcoming Hamish Carson and Julian Matthews to the Kiwi Olympic middle-distance club ahead of the Rio Olympics in 2016.
‘‘We had an hour-long session with him reflecting on his experiences and how special this exclusive brotherhood is of New Zealand Olympic milers and how it’s fun for him to continue his legacy through these guys and future people. We were talking to Peter Snell the man, rather than the runner and that was really special.’’
It also dawned on Willis how special it will be if he can qualify for his final Olympics next year in Tokyo, where Snell won that historic golden double in 1964.
Willis knows he can never match the feats of the greatest of them all. But he sure would love one last shot.