New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 85

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Yvette Corlett
(née Williams),
our first female
Olympic gold
medallist (long
jump, Helsinki,
1952), is one of
only five Kiwis
to have won
Olympic gold and
set a world record
in track and field
athletics. The
others are Murray
Halberg, Jack
Lovelock, Peter
Snell and John Walker.
Peter Heidenstrom, the great
chronicler of New Zealand ath-
letics, raised eyebrows when
he anointed Williams the New
Zealand athlete of the century.
However, her extraordinary
versatility lends credence to
this proposition: she won
national titles in five different
events, holding them for years
in some cases, and won gold
medals in the long jump, shot
put and discus at the 1954
British Empire and Common-
wealth Games in Vancouver.
On May 29, 1953, Edmund
Hillary and Nepa-
lese Sherpa Tenzing
Norgay became the
first people to climb
Mt Everest. In a
day and age when
climbers queue to
scale the world’s
highest peak, it
could be argued
that mountain-
eering is more
recreation than
sport, but there
was very little
recreation to
be had in the
Himalayas in

1953. Besides, in a day and age
      when synchronised swim-
      ming is an Olympic sport, the
      distinction seems entirely aca-
      demic. That same day, Hillary
      encapsulated Kiwi sporting
      endeavour in one of the great

Victory: Peter Snell

claims gold in the

1500m at the

196 4 Olympics,

with fellow Kiwi

John Davies

third. Left, Bob

Blair, top, and

Bert Sutcliffe.

double. No one

has done it

since. His 800m

gold medal in

Rome four years

earlier, along with

Halberg’s win in the

5000m, ushered in a golden

era of New Zealand middle-dis-

tance running, based on coach

Arthur Lydiard’s endurance

training regime. In Tokyo,

though, Snell’s dominance

was absolute. The image of the

man in black powering down

the home stretch with a field

of lesser beings in his wake is

perhaps the most thrilling in

our sporting history.

The men’s eight winning

gold at the 1972 Munich

Olympics. It’s sometimes over-

looked that our first rowing

gold medal came in the men’s

coxed four in Mexico four

years earlier. However, the

eight is the blue-ribbon event

and it was this victory

that captured the

imagination and

provided the impe-

tus that has led to

rowing becoming

our most suc-

cessful Olympic

sport. Delighted

that our true-blue

sporting quotes:

“We knocked the

bastard off.”

On Boxing Day,

1953, in Johan-

nesburg, Bob Blair

and Bert Sutcliffe

put aside injury

and grief to forge a

memorable crick-

eting partnership.

Returning to Ellis

Park, after being

X-rayed for skull

damage caused by

a bouncer, to find the New

Zealand innings in disarray,

Sutcliffe ordered a double

whisky, wrapped a towel

around his bloodied

head and returned

to the fray. He was

still there when the

ninth wicket fell.

The players began to

leave the field because

it was taken for granted

that No 11 batsman

Blair wasn’t taking

any further part in

the game: on Christ-

mas Eve, his fiancée

had been killed in the

Tangiwai rail

disaster. When

the 21-year-old

Blair emerged

from the players’

tunnel, bat in

hand, the 23,000-

strong crowd fell

silent. They found

their voice when

the pair hit four

sixes in an over on

their way to adding

33 off eight balls.

At the

1964 Tokyo

Olympics,

Peter Snell became

the first man

since the 1920s to

do the 800m/1500m

Yvette Williams and

Edmund Hillary.

The image of

Snell powering

down the home

stretch with a field

of lesser beings

in his wake is

perhaps the most

thrilling in our

sporting history.