Bannister’s moment

Being first to a great achievement is a guarantee of immortality: Neil Armstrong on the Moon, Edmund Hillary at the top of Everest and Roger Bannister, the first to run a mile in under four minutes. The grainy black-and-white film of this latter accomplishment at the Iffley Road track in Oxford in 1954 is one of this country’s most iconic sporting images, evoking a world that has long gone. Sir Roger was of the Corinthian spirit, a talented enthusiast whose running was much less important to him than his achievements as a world-renowned neurologist. But his modesty could not disavow this epic feat. It is a moment caught in time, never to be erased.