Roger Bannister, first to run mile below 4 minutes, dies at 88
Bannister, the first runner to break the 4-minute barrier in the mile, has died. He was 88. Bannister’s family said in a statement that he died peacefully on Saturday in Oxford, the city where he cracked the feat many had thought humanly impossible on a windy afternoon in 1954. Bannister had been slowed by Parkinson’s disease since 2011.
Bannister clocked 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds over four laps at Oxford’s Iffley Road track on May 6, 1954, to break the 4-minute mile — a test of speed and endurance that stands as one of the defining sporting achievements of the 20th century. “It’s amazing that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have broken the 4-minute mile,” Bannister said in an interview in 2012.
The enduring image of the lanky Oxford medical student head tilted back, eyes closed and mouth agape as he strained across the finishing tape — captured the public’s imagination, made him a celebrity and lifted the spirits of Britons still suffering through postwar austerity. of finishing without a medal in the 1,500m in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. Instead of retiring from the sport, he decided to chase the 4-minute mark. After Bannister crossed the finish line, the announcer read out the time: “3...” The rest was drowned out by the roar of the crowd.
The record lasted just 46 days, as Landy ran 3:57.9 in Turku, Finland, on June 21, 1954. That set the stage for the showdown between Bannister and Landy at the Empire Games, now called the Commonwealth Games, in Vancouver on August 9, 1954.
Bannister won the race in 3:58.8, with Landy second in 3:59. It was the first time two men had run under 4 minutes in the same race. Bannister considered that victory even more satisfying than the first 4-minute mile because it came in a competitive race against his greatest rival.
LONDON:Roger