by Larry EderFifty-five years ago, on a very windy day at the track on Iffley road at Oxford University, Roger Bannister, Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway made sports history. The world record set by Gunder Hagg, from 1945, of 4:01.4, was broken with the first mile under four minutes.
It was that same year that Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mt. Everest. It was less than a decade after the end of the second World War, and the world had changed dramatically. It is a story I heard as a high school student in the 1970s, and it was the first real book on running I read at the time as well.
On April 25, Micheal Coe became the 322nd American to break four minutes for the mile, with his 3:56 in windy conditions. There is magic in the mile and a sub four minute mile is still a badge of athleticism for the middle distance runner. Sir Roger Bannister, now 80 ( he celebrated his 80th on March 23, 2009, and he runs, once again, two days a week! https://www.runblogrun.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt.cgi?__mode=view&_type=entry&id=1166&blog_id=1 ).
Sir Roger Bannister lives a quiet, thoughtful life, just like the renaissance man he is. Sir Roger Bannister, like no one before him, and perhaps, no one after him, saw the beauty in a mile well run, beating the stop watch before it hit four minutes, and both the eternity in that six tenths of a second and the hope it gave to his recovering nation, and a recovering world, will never be forgotten.
To truly appreciate the importance of this event, one must see it. So, grab your coffee or tea, sit back and watch (thanks to Walt Murphy for finding this):
video of the entire race
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_2511000/2511575.stm
May 6
1954–No event has had more of an impact on the sport than Roger Bannister’s historic 3:59.4 mile at the Oxford University track on Iffley Road. Sweden’s Gunder Hagg had held the world record of 4:01.4 since 1945 and the race to become the first man in history to break 4-minutes for the mile had been joined by three men–Bannister, Australia’s John Landy, and American Wes Santee. Bannister enlisted two friends to help set the pace in this latest attempt at making history. Training partner Chris Brasher, who would win the gold medal in the steeplechase at the 1956 Olympics, led Bannister through the first 1/4-mile in 57.4, with Bannister right behind in 57.5, and Chris Chataway, who would set his own world record at 5,000-meters later in the year(13:51.6), a close 3rd. The order stayed the same through the 1/2-mile (1:58.2), then Chataway moved into the lead with 1-1/2 laps to go, leading through the 3/4-mile split in 3:00.5. Bannister went into the lead on the final backstretch and his race against the clock and a seemingly unbreakable barrier was successful as he crossed the line in 3:59.4. Stadium announcer Norris McWhirter (who, along with his brother, Ross, started the Guiness Book of World Records), very aware of the significance of the result, said with typical British restraint, “Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the result of event number 9, the one mile: First, number 41, R.G. Bannister of the Amateur Athletic Association and formerly of Exeter and Merton Colleges, with a time which is a new meeting and track record, and which subject to ratification will be a new English Native, British National, British All-Comers’, European, British Empire, and World’s record. The time is Three… “ and the rest of the time was lost in the roar of the crowd. (From the IAAF’s World Record Progression book).
RELATED LINKS:
video of the entire race
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/6/newsid_2511000/2511575.stm
SI’s first “Sportsman of the Yearâ€: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/1998/sportsman/1954/;
Bio: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ban0bio-1;
“The Four Minute Mileâ€:http://www.runningmovies.com/f.htm#62;
Neal Bascomb’s “The Perfect Mileâ€: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/booksellers/press_release/bascomb/;
Reviews of ESPN’s movie “Four Minutesâ€: http://www.christopher-plummer.com/fourminutes.html
1967–13-year old Canadian Maureen Wilton, all 4-9 3/4(1.46m) of her, ran 3:15:22 in Toronto to set a women’s “world record†in the marathon. The 2nd woman in the race was running pioneer and author Kathrine Switzer.
1979–Senior Jeff Nelson (Burbank,Ca) ran 8:36.3 at the UCLA/Pepsi Inv. to break Craig Virgin’s National H.S. 2-mile Record of 8:40.9(1973). Nelson’s mark stood until German Fernandez(Riverbank,Ca) ran 8:34.40 in 2008.
1990–Scoring in six events, Meredith Rainey led Harvard to its first Heptagonal team title. Rainey was 3rd in the 100(12.32), 2nd in the 200(24.59), won the 400(51.56) and 800(2:07.54), and ran on the runnerup 4×100 and 4×400 relays.
Other events in history(http://www.historyorb.com/day/May/6);
More at: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do
Special thanks to Walt Murphy. Please remember to subscribe to XC XPress by contacting WMurphy25@aol.com.
For more on the sport, please click www.american-trackandfield.com
