Bannister Miles – May 6th 2024 – Iffley Road Oxford

Iffley Road Track 6^th May 1954, the crowd waits in anticipation as the athletes in the men’s one mile line up on the start line. Among them is young medical student Roger Bannister and his pacers, friends and soon to be household names, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher. The occasion, a match between the Amateur Athletic Association and Oxford University Athletic Club. Roger Bannister has targeted this race for an attempt to become the first ever person to run a sub four-minute mile. It is a quest that has captured the imagination of the world in the post war period as the world’s best milers vied for the historic honour. Passing the ¾ mile mark in 3:01 Bannister hit the back straight and strode out. It was painful and he forced himself through the remaining yards and down the home straight feeling that the ‘tape was receding’. In the pre-electronic timing days, stopwatches had to be compared and a wait ensued before the time was announced by Norris McWhirter, founder of The Guinness Book of Records, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, here is the result of event number nine, the one mile. First, number 41, R.G. Bannister of the Amateur Athletic Association and formerly of Exeter and Merton Colleges, with a time that 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 Record. The time is three…’, cheers erupted, and the four-minute barrier was broken, history had been made!