Champion athlete Peter Snell in town
Friday, 25 May 2007
From PNCC Press Release:
Champion athlete and Olympic gold medallist, Peter Snell, is returning to where it all began in Palmerston North this afternoon.
In March 1959 a relatively unknown Peter Snell won his first New Zealand track titles at the national championships at Memorial Park. The following year he was a gold medallist at the Rome Olympics.
The double that Peter achieved in Palmerston North (880 yards and the mile) was repeated twice more in his illustrious career – at the Commonwealth Games in Perth (1962) and the Olympic Games in Tokyo (1964).
Peter, accompanist by his wife Miki and Professor Chris Cunningham, Dr Steve Stannard and Mike Freeman, from Massey University, will be greeted by City Council staff and given a brief tour of the redeveloped Memorial Park which was only completed this month.
The main features of the park are a new surface which addresses drainage problems through the installation of a carpet of sand inserted underneath the turf and a multi use
asphalt track which will be available for both inline roller bladers, cyclists and for a range of community purposes including running.
The 400 metre track has a width of six metres and will be able to host local, national and international skating events.
While Peter Snell is visiting the venue of his triumph 48 years ago, he will see a demonstration of skating, cycling and running on the track.
Last week he received an honorary doctorate in science at Massey University’s at a Palmerston North campus graduation ceremony.
Dr Snell, an associate professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, has forged an international reputation as a physiologist.
He has a BSc in human performance from the University of California, Davis in 1976, a PhD in exercise physiology from Washington State University in 1980 and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas in 1981.
Dr Snell is the Massey University Foundation’s visiting fellow in health and exercise science and, over the past
year, he has been collaborating with Massey’s Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health and the University’s Wellington-based Centre for Public Health Research on projects relating to human health, nutrition and fitness, particularly Polynesian health issues such as diabetes.
The City Council is proud that his impressive athletics career began in Palmerston North and will make a presentation to Dr and Mrs Snell at Memorial Park.
