First four-minute miler Roger Bannister dies at 88
Sir Roger Bannister, who has died at the age of 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 that Bannister died peacefully in Oxford on Saturday “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,” the family said.
British Prime Minister Theresa May led tributes to the former athlete, who later became one of Europe’s leading neurologists.
“Sir Roger Bannister was a great British sporting icon whose achievements were an inspiration to us all. He will be greatly missed,” Mrs May posted on Twitter.
Bannister made his recordbreaking run on the Oxford University track during a local athletics meeting when he was 25.
Only a few spectators were there to witness the Englishman’s destruction of the myth that no human being could run so fast, but it later made headlines around the world.
Bannister’s achievement opened the physical and psychological door for many other milers who have since beaten his time of 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.
Roger Gilbert Bannister, born in the London suburb of Harrow 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 was 1.8 metres tall and weighed only 68 kilograms, was told he was too light to make a first-rate oarsman, so he turned to running.
May 6, 1954, the day on which he ran his first mile in under four minutes, was cold, wet and windy – not ideal for a record-breaking attempt.
Bannister thought about calling it off but after a short rain shower and a drop in wind, he said: “Right, I’ll try.”
And the rest is history.
Only a few spectators were there to witness the Englishman’s destruction of the myth that no human being could run so fast