Four-minute miler Roger Bannister dies
ROGER Bannister, who has died aged 88, will live forever in the annals of athletics history as the first man to run a mile in under four minutes.
His family said yesterday: “Sir Roger Bannister died peacefully in Oxford on March 3, aged 88, surrounded by his family who were as loved by him, as he was loved by them.
“He banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May led the tributes to the former athlete, who later became one of Europe’s leading neurologists and was made a knight.
“Sir Roger Bannister was a great British sporting icon whose achievements were an inspiration to us all. He will be greatly missed,” she said on Twitter.
The “miracle mile” was run on the Oxford University track during a local athletics meeting, with only a few spectators witnessing the Englishman’s destruction of the myth that no human being could run so fast.
Bannister made headlines around the world at the age of 25.
His achievement opened the physical and psychological door for many other milers who have since beaten his time of three minutes 59.4 seconds.
Roger Gilbert Bannister, born in Harrow, London, on March 23 1929, was a shy, gangling medical student who preferred to be an oarsman rather than a runner.
In 1946, when he went to Oxford, his great ambition was to row against Cambridge in the annual boat race on the Thames.
But Bannister, who stood 1.8m tall and weighed only 68kg, was told he was too light to make a first-rate oarsman.
So he turned to running. In 1947, at Oxford, he ran his first mile race, finishing second in a time of just over five minutes.
Later that year, he won the mile for Oxford against Cambridge.
But he had set his sights on the fourminute mile.
The world record was gradually being whittled down and a number of athletes were trying to crash the four-minute barrier.
To Bannister, the challenge was to be the first man to do so.
He immortalised himself as the first sub-four-minute miler at the Oxford University versus Amateur Athletics Association fixture of May 6 1954.