Hero never made a penny from his feats on the track

THE four-minute mile was the most significant barrier in athletics.

Sir Roger Bannister was a true pioneer. He embodied the amateur ethos and retired soon after that record to pursue what he said was a more important career in medicine.

Few of us in life can have one

significant career, let alone what he did. Roger was very courteous, very polite, but never sought the limelight. In the early 50’s, TV was in its early days. Then we had Coe, Cram and Ovett – Roger’s story grew and grew as the decades unfolded.

Roger never made a penny from this athletics career – he truly was in it for the right reasons.

He was one of my all-time heroes.