On Might 6, 1954, British medical scholar Roger Bannister made historical past by turning into the primary man in documented historical past to run a mile (1,609m) in beneath 4 minutes. Seventy years later, Bannister’s mark of three:59.4 nonetheless stands as a benchmark for a lot of.
On Monday in Oxford, U.Ok., a whole bunch of runners gathered to run a mile in his honour, starting exterior Oxford’s Christchurch School and continuing alongside the Excessive Avenue to the Iffley Monitor, the place Bannister achieved his feat in 1954. Current for the festivities was the present mile world document holder and one of many best distance runners in historical past, Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj.
#OnThisDay in 1954, Sir Roger Bannister set a brand new world mile document of three minutes 59.4 seconds on the Iffley Street Sports activities Monitor.
It was the primary mile ever run beneath 4 minutes.
🎬 | @BBCArchive pic.twitter.com/PWxfv3HjGA
— College of Oxford (@UniofOxford) Might 6, 2024
El Guerrouj, now 49, didn’t break his world document time of three:43:13 (from 1999) in Oxford, however he confirmed that he nonetheless has some velocity within the legs, recording a six-minute and 39-second mile. Becoming a member of El Guerrouj was British mile document holder Steve Cram and 13 different athletes who had surpassed Bannister’s document in subsequent years.
Bannister’s achievement will ceaselessly be remembered as one of the vital important arbitrary boundaries in athletics, inspiring a era of British middle-distance athletes like Cram, Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. Bannister’s document was set in a time when there have been no branded monitor spikes or high-cushioned tremendous footwear. Bannister wore leather-based footwear with lengthy spikes on the underside, weighing 4.5 oz. (or of an identical weight because the Nike Dragonfly spike).
🏆 Supermilers on the neighborhood mile on the Bannister Miles assembly – Filbert Bayi, Hicham El Guerrouj & Steve Cram.
📸 Will Palmer pic.twitter.com/jR9qOhhLke
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) Might 6, 2024
As of January 2024, greater than 2,000 distance runners, together with 76 Canadians, have damaged the four-minute mile barrier.
Along with the neighborhood mile races in Oxford on Monday, which attracted greater than 1,000 runners, the Iffley Monitor hosted elite mile races for athletes who regarded to problem the four-minute mark. 4 athletes went under the mark, with Ossame Meslek of Italy recording the quickest time of three:56.15.
Ossama Meslek and Hicham El Guerrouj share a phrase after his 3:56.15 clocking on the Bannister Miles, turning into the ninth individual to run inside 4 minutes at Iffley Street.
4 males did so as we speak 🔥 pic.twitter.com/qAXJoXrbBN— James Rhodes (@James_Athletics) Might 6, 2024
That is the second time Oxford’s Iffley Street has hosted an anniversary occasion for Bannister’s mile. In 2004, Bannister was readily available to witness Australia’s Craig Mottram and Eire’s Sonia O’Sullivan win elite mile races in 3:56.64 and 4:27.79, respectively.
Bannister died of pneumonia in 2018 on the age of 88.
