IAAF President Sebastian Coe said Bannister's death represented a "day of intense sadness both for our nation and for all of us in athletics."Ĭoe ran a mile in a world record 3 minutes, 47.33 seconds in 1981 between winning gold medals in the 1,500 meters at the 19 Olympics.Watch Video: Roger Bannister, first to run sub four-minute mile, dies at 88 "My medical work has been my achievement and my family with 14 grandchildren. "None of my athletics was the greatest achievement," he said. As chairman of the Sports Council between 19, he developed the first test for anabolic steroids. It was the first time two men had run under 4 minutes in the same race.īannister considered that victory even more satisfying than the first 4-minute mile because it came in a competitive race against his greatest rival.īannister capped his brilliant summer of 1954 by winning the 1,500 meters at the European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, in a games record of 3:43.8.īannister, who was chosen as Sports Illustrated's first Sportsman of the Year in 1954, retired from competition and pursued a full-time career in neurology. "Around the last bend, I think the crowd was making so much noise he couldn't hear whether I was behind, or whether he'd dropped me, and he looked over his left shoulder, and I passed him on his right shoulder," Bannister said.īannister won the race in 3:58.8, with Landy second in 3:59. Landy set a fast pace, leading by as much as 15 yards before Bannister caught up as the bell rang for the final lap. That set the stage for the showdown between Bannister and Landy at the Empire Games, now called the Commonwealth Games, in Vancouver, British Columbia on Aug. The record lasted just 46 days, as Landy ran 3:57.9 in Turku, Finland, on June 21, 1954. I drove on, impelled by a combination of fear and pride." In this May 6, 1954, file photo, Britain's Roger Bannister hits the tape to break the four-minute mile in Oxford, England.Īfter Bannister crossed the finish line, the announcer read out the time: "3." The rest was drowned out by the roar of the crowd. I felt at that moment that it was my chance to do one thing supremely well.
The tape meant finality - extinction perhaps. "The only reality was the next 200 yards of track under my feet. "The world seemed to stand still, or did not exist," he wrote in his book, "The First Four Minutes."
With 250 yards to go, Bannister surged past Chataway, his long arms and legs pumping and his lungs gasping for oxygen. Bannister would need to run the final lap in 59 seconds. Chris Chataway, a distance specialist, paced a third lap of 62.3 - 3:00.4. With Chris Brasher setting the pace on the cinder track, they ran a first lap in 57.5 seconds, then 60.7 - 1:58.2 for the half mile. But, shortly before 6 p.m., the wind died down. When Bannister looked up at the English flag whipping in the wind atop a nearby church, he feared he would have to call off the record attempt. His chance finally came on a wet, cool, blustery May afternoon during a meet between Oxford and the Amateur Athletic Association. Although I tried in 1953, I broke the British record, but not the 4-minute mile, and so everything was ready in 1954." Our new queen had been crowned the year before, Everest had been climbed in 1953. "I thought it would be right for Britain to try to get this," Bannister said.
He also wanted to deliver something special for his country. "As it became clear that somebody was going to do it, I felt that I would prefer it to be me," Bannister told the AP. Swedish runner Gundar Haegg's mile time of 4:01.4 had stood for nine years, but in 1954 Bannister, Australian rival John Landy and others were threatening to break it.
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