Paul Ackerley

Paul Ackerley ( born May 16 1949 in Ashburton; † 3 May 2011 Wellington ) was a New Zealand hockey player and coach, the Montreal won the gold medal in hockey at the Summer Olympic Games in 1976.

Life

Ackerley studied post-school at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and began at the University of Canterbury Hockey Club his career as a hockey player. In 1974, he was first appointed to the national hockey team, this was part of until 1977, scoring 25 goals.

During this time he was attending the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, defeating it with his team initially the Netherlands in the semi-finals on July 28, 1976 with a 2-1 after extra time. In the final on 30 July 1976, the New Zealand national team finally defeated Australia with a 1-0, winning next to the 1500 - meter runner John Walker the only gold medal for New Zealand in these games.

For this performance, Ackerley was taken with the team in 1990 in the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in Dunedin.

He was coach of the field hockey team in 1992 and won the ladies with this the bronze medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. After he finished this activity and most recently worked as a consultant for training and volunteering in sport and Recreation New Zealand ( Sparc ).