2026-04-29T08:06:40+12:00

Price: 35.00

Runners in Black: The Glory Years, And Later by Christopher Tobin.

Publisher: Bosco Press, 2022.

384 pages, illustrated.

In February 1954, an unlikely looking runner with a withered left arm shot into world reckoning as a miler. His name was Murray Halberg.

Coached by Arthur Lydiard, an Auckland shoe factory foreman, Halberg went on to become an Olympic champion and world record-holder, so too did another athlete Lydiard coached, Peter Snell.
Their success and that of other athletes coached by Lydiard inspired a new generation of champions through the 1970s and into the 1980s: Allison Roe, Lorraine Moller, Anne Audin, Dick Quax, Rod Dixon, Dick Tayler, and John Walker.
New Zealand became known as a nation that produced great runners.
Then tradition faded and almost died until a new star emerged, Nick Willis. However, apart from Willis the days of world-class runners coming consistently out of New Zealand have gone.
This book explores what happened.

All books are sent free by courier postage within New Zealand.