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On This Day 1954 - Bannister breaks four-minute mile

On 6th May 1954, Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile in history. A medical student at Oxford University at the time, Bannister ran the mile in 3:59:4 at a local meet at Oxford’s Iffley Road track and watched by about 3,000 spectators. The race was carefully planned and Bannister was aided by two pacemakers, his close friends Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway.

Brasher took the lead as the first pacemaker, Bannister slotted in behind, with Chataway in third place. When Brasher began to feel the strain, Bannister signalled for Chataway to take over.

Just over 200 yards from the finish, Bannister took the lead with a final burst of energy. He sprinted to the line in record time where he collapsed exhausted into the arms of a friend.

Even though the new world record was beaten the following month by John Landy of Australia (3:58.0), Bannister will always be remembered as the first man to break the four-minute barrier in the “Perfect Mile”.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 6th, 2006 at 2:23 pm and is filed under Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.