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Tuesday 6 May 2014

60 Years Ago Today - The first sub 4 minute mile



Sixty years on here's one of the most iconic sporting moments in history. Roger Bannister had intended to retire after the 1952 Olympics but having only come in 4th in the 1500m final he hung on for another two years to make an attempt on the holy grail of middle distance running, the four minute mile. Roger Bannister knew that two other milers had the same intent, John Landy of Australia and Wes Santee of the USA. So Roger Bannister ran very early in the season at Iffley Road, Oxford, and was paced by his old friends Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway. Roger Bannister finished taking 2 seconds off of Gunder Hägg's nine year old mile World Record. After the long wait to run under four minutes, the record only stood for 46 days as John Landy ran 3.57.9 in Finland.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

out of interest, who came third in that race?

Not a sheep said...

I'm afraid I do not know. Can anyone tell us?

Anonymous said...

It was a guy called Tom Hulatt - from Tibshelf (where? I hear you say)