Peter Snell 1962 World record 1.44.3 800m on grass - Lancaster Park Christchurch, New Zealand

On February 3, 1962, New Zealand middle-distance running legend Sir Peter Snell shattered the 800m world record with a time of 1 minute 44.3 seconds at Lancaster Park, Christchurch, New Zealand. Running on a grass track, Snell obliterated the previous world record by 1.4 seconds. He ran splits of 51.0 and 53.3 seconds with Auckland athlete Barry Robinson pacesetting on the first lap. Because he was competing in a yards-based event, he managed to break two world records in a single race, lowering the 880-yard world record to 1:45.1 at the same time. Jim Dupree (USA) finished 2nd in 1.49.6 His 800m world record stood untouched for 11 years until Marcello Fiasconaro clocked 1:43.7 in 1973, and it remained the Oceania area record for 56 years until it was broken by Joseph Deng in 2018. It also stood as the New Zealand national record for 62 years, until James Preston finally surpassed it on May 25, 2024, with a time of 1:44.04. Because elite athletics shifted entirely to synthetic tracks, Snell's 1:44.3 remains the fastest 800 metres ever run on a grass track. His pacemaker Barry Robinson noted the grass surface at Lancaster Park was damp as it had rained the day before and they had drizzle the morning of the race, and surmised if the race had been held on a modern, fast synthetic track, Snell's time would have been significantly faster. Just one week prior, on January 27, 1962, he had also broken the world mile record (3:54.4) on an odd-sized grass track at Cooks Gardens in Whanganui under humid and threatening skies where rain had just held off. Original footage by Arnold Reynolds and Archives New Zealand.