| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Leslie Frank Rackley | ||||||||||||||||
| Born | c.1954 (age 70–71) | ||||||||||||||||
| Relative(s) | Les Rackley (father) Jeff Rackley (brother) | ||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
Leslie Frank Rackley (born c.1954) is a New Zealand former amateur boxer and rugby union player. He won a bronze medal for boxing in the middleweight division at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games.
Rackley was born into a noted sporting family. His father, also called Les Rackley, was a notable New Zealand boxing trainer; his brothers Jeff, Perry, and Dean all represented New Zealand in boxing at either Olympic or Commonwealth Games; and his sisters Margaret and Tish were both national volleyball representatives. [1] Les Rackley Jr was educated at Victory School in Nelson, [1] Nelson Intermediate School, [2] and then Nelson College from 1968 to 1972, where he was a member of the 1st XV rugby team in 1972 and the 1st XI cricket team in 1970 and 1971. [3]
Trained by his father, Rackley won New Zealand junior titles at the national junior boxing championships in 1969 and 1970. [4] In 1971 he won the national intermediate welterweight title, [5] and in 1972 he was the New Zealand middleweight champion. [6] He went on to represent New Zealand at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, winning a bronze medal in the men's middleweight (71–75 kg) division. [1] [7]
A forward, Rackley played for the Rival Rugby Football Club in Nelson. [8] At a provincial level, he played three matches for Nelson Bays in 1977, scoring four points. [8]
