Two milers dip under four minutes

IT WA S fitting that the one mile race, a highlight of the British Milers Club Meeting at Oxford, was won in under four minutes, writes our athletics correspondent.

The Iffley Road track hosted one of the great landmarks in sport when in 1954 Roger Bannister became the first athlete to break the four minute barrier. The BMC Meeting saw Richard Peters (Bristol & Westbury) take the mile race in 3:58.70 with runnerup Jonathan Mellor (Liverpool H) 3:58.76 – the first time that two athletes have gone under four minutes in the same race at that track.

A berdeen’s Mark Haskett placed 10th in the C race clocking a personal best 4:18.65.

A braham Kiplagat (Kenya) won the 800m in 1:49.59 with Guy Learmonth (Lasswade) third in 1:49.72. Diane Cummins (Canada) won the women’s 800m A race in 2:03.6 while Kilbarchan’s Claire Gibson finished fifth in a season’s best 2:05.2.

There was a personal best over 5,000m for Emily Stewart (Edinburgh A C), her 16 minutes 05.30 placing second to runaway winner Judit Pla (Canada).

A 71.24m hammer throw victory by Chris Bennet (Shettleston) was not enough to save the Glasgow club from last place at the Scottish Men’s Track & Field League Division 1 match at Grangemouth.

A 21.91 seconds 200m victory for Greg Louden, however, helped Lasswade A C win on the day, just three points ahead of Central AC who hold pole position in the league table.

Team results: 1 Lasswade 285, 2 Central AC 282, 3 Edinburgh A C 262, 4 A berdeen AAC 259, 5 Falkirk Vic. 231, 6 Kilbarchan 230, 7 VP Glasgow 184, 8 Shettleston 102.

Inver ness Har riers strengthened their place at the top of the second division standings while A rbroath & District maintained their promotion challenge in second place.

A rbroath all-rounder Michael Downie won the shot putt with 12.57m as well as taking second in the high jump with 1.90m.

The hurdles were no barrier to Pitreavie athletes as Francis Smith won the 110m hurdles (15.72) and Jack Lawrie the 400m hurdles (55.73); Ewan Dyer (Pitreavie) won the flat 400m in 50.25 seconds. The 800m went to Inverness Harrier Stephen MacKay in 1:56.42 ahead of Fife under-20 athlete Bruce Millar who posted a personal best 1:58.26.

Result: 1 Inverness 313, 2 A rbroath & Dist 276, 3 Pitreavie 227, 4 Giffnock Nth 217, 5 Whitemoss 142, 6 Corstorphine 126, 7 Fife A C 101, 8 Clydesdale 66.