We’re delighted to congratulate Auckland City Athletics coach, Olympic bronze medallist and national treasure Barry Magee, who was inducted to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame at last Thursday’s 2009 Halberg Sports Awards. 
Barry is pictured, right, with fellow inductee Allison Roe after their induction at Sky City, Auckland, 4 February 2010.
PHOTO: Andrew Cornaga, www.photosport.co.nz
In Olympic history Arthur Barry Magee was the tough little guy from New Zealand who chased home the great Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila and Moroccan Abdesiem Rhadi Ben Abdesselem in the marathon at the 1960 Rome Olympics. His bronze medal was the first Olympic medal won by a New Zealander in the Marathon.
In New Zealand sports history he belongs to the illustrious group of athletes coached by Arthur Lydiard to become provincial, national and international champions. Along the way, Lydiard and his golden boys revolutionised how human beings train for sport.
Barry won a total of 18 (seven Senior & eleven Masters) New Zealand titles, was part of New Zealand’s 1961 world record-breaking 4 x one-mile relay team (with Peter Snell, Murray Halberg and Barry Philpott) and competed at two Olympic and two Commonwealth Games. Between 1961 and 1964 he held No. 1 or 2 world rankings for 5km, 10km, 30km and the marathon.
He was the first New Zealander to win an international marathon, at Fukuoka, and the first to break 2.20 in an Asian marathon - in 1960. At the 1961 Coliseum Relays in the United States, he beat the American intercollegiate 5000m champion in a stadium record time, then went on to White City in London, where he beat the British and German 5000m champions over three miles.
Barry retired from elite athletics in 1964 and a year later took up coaching, becoming one of the leading proponents of Lydiard’s methods and philosophy. He has since coached many outstanding New Zealand athletes, including Kevin Ryan, Kerry Rodger, Evan Maguire and Raewyn Rodger.
Barry, whose joyful spirit and infectious energy belie the seventy-something he turned on Waitangi Day, continues to coach individual athletes around New Zealand and overseas, but ACA is his home base, and his wisdom, experience and inspiration are always available to members at training sessions and competitions.
Auckland City Athletics Club President Richard Adams says that Barry's recognition by the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame is another milestone in his long career of outstanding achievement and generous contribution to the sport of athletics. "It is entirely appropriate that Barry has been awarded this rare accolade. It is a reminder to us as a Club how fortunate we are to have him as an integral part of ACA, and how fortunate our athletes are to have the benefit of his excellent coaching and counsel; not that we need to be reminded of it because we appreciate and value him every day!"
Barry was inducted to the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame alongside outstanding road runner Allison Roe, winner of the 1981 Boston and New York marathons. He also received a Lifetime Coach award from Sport Auckland in December 2009, and an Athletics New Zealand merit award for coaching last July. Barry was made a Life Member of the Auckland City Athletics Club in 2007.
