Peter Snell was an unknown athlete
when he won the 800 metres gold medal
at the 1960 Rome Olympics, lunging at the tape
to just shade Roger Moens on the line.
The upset win boosted Snell's confidence
in middle-distance races back home.
In 1962 Snell broke the world mile record
on grass at Wanganui's Cooks gardens.
I likedthe grass track at Western Springs
and some evenings Peter Snell was there too,
training for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics
where he won the 800 metres and 1500 metres.
Snell set world and Olympic records at various distances,
yet the year after the Tokyo triumphs he retired.
The trajectory of his career was like a shooting star.
Then he moved across the sky to the United States.
(Peter Snell 1938-December 2019) .
2-4 January,2020.
Michael, with PH as it is now, you may no longer visit, or you may but never see this note. I hope you are well. i persevere, now and then, hoping PH will recover someday to its glory. bri : )
A wonderful tribute to Peter Snell of New Zealand who made his country men proud by winning gold in Olympics and breaking records as an athelete.The stories of such players are very motivating.Thank you Michael for this lovely piece of poem and also Congratulations for being selected as the Poet of the Day!
Affirming heroes is not hero worship, which is getting out of date.
Thanks for your generous sentiments. I do think that affirming heroes has a place in poetry still.
Beautiful! I love the simplicity of language, no embellishments. I got to know an athlete too
A wonderful poem of the day. Congrats on you featured piece........10++++
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Nice to know about this great athlete and his achievements in International sporting events having broken several world records. He was rightly adjudged as 'Athlete of the Century' in New Zealand. His humanitarian work after his retirement from active sports in 1964 remained very noteworthy.