The stadium announcer excited the crowd by delaying the announcement of Sir Roger’s winning time as long as possible: “Ladies and gentlemen, here is the result of event nine, the one mile: first, number forty one, R. Of that moment as he crossed the finish he once said: “I felt like an exploded flashlight with no will to live.” Yet the image of him gasping for breath at the finish line is iconic, and there can be no doubt how hard he had pushed himself. “My legs seemed to meet no resistance at all, almost as if impelled by an unknown force,” Sir Roger would later remark of that run. Chataway continued to lead around the front turn until Bannister began his finishing kick with about 275 yards to go (just over a half-lap), running the last lap in just under 59 seconds. Chataway moved to the front after the second lap and maintained the pace with a 3:01 split at the bell. Brasher led the first lap in 58 seconds and the half-mile in 1:58, with Sir Roger tucked in behind, and Chataway a stride behind him. The race took place in front of a crowd of around 3000 people and was broadcast live by BBC Radio.Īt the starting gun Brasher and Sir Roger immediately went into the lead. Shortly before the race, however, the wind dropped and Sir Roger did run, led by his pacemakers Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher. On the day of the event there were winds of up to 25 miles per hour, and Sir Roger was not inclined to run as a record was out of reach in such conditions. He set his sights on making an attempt on, during a meeting between British Amateur Athletic Association (now UK Athletics) and Oxford University at Iffley Road Track in east Oxford. With a number of other athletes also pushing to break the four-minute mile, Sir Roger knew that time was against him. “This race made me realise that the four-minute mile was not out of reach,” Sir Roger later commented. Paced by Chris Chataway, he ran 4:03.6, breaking the previous record by over half a second. On, Sir Roger made an attempt on the British record at Oxford. ![]() His failure to win a medal hit him hard, and he seriously considered giving up athletics before deciding on a new challenge: to run a sub-four-minute mile. Sir Roger set a new British record of 3:46.30, but finished outside of the medals in fourth place. The 1500 metres final of the 1952 Olympics was extraordinarily competitive, with the first eight runners all finishing inside the previous world record. He used the knowledge he was acquiring in his undergraduate studies to inform his training regime and diet, using a tailored mix of interval training, fell running and anaerobic training that did not become common practice among athletes until much more recently. ![]() However, watching the 1948 Olympics helped to feed his desire to become a great miler and he set his training goals on the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. Modest as the time may have been, it was the starting point for his athletics career. He was selected as an Olympic “possible” in 1948, but declined as he felt he was not ready to compete at that level. Having never worn running shoes or been on a running track before coming to Exeter, he came second in the University’s freshman’s mile race in November 1946 with what he described as “the very modest time” of four minutes and 52 seconds. In 1948 he was also president of Exeter College JCR. ![]() During his four years at Exeter he was a member of the College’s and the University’s athletics clubs, serving as president of both. Sir Roger came to Exeter College in 1946 to read physiological sciences, aged 17. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Exeter College in 1979. ![]() He retired from athletics towards the end of 1954 to concentrate on his medical career, becoming a noted neurologist. He went on to win gold in the mile race at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games (now called the Commonwealth Games) and in the 1500 metres at the European Championships later the same year. Sir Roger received global recognition for becoming the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. “He banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends.” They released a statement yesterday, which said: “Sir Roger Bannister died peacefully in Oxford on 3 March, aged 88, surrounded by his family who were as loved by him, as he was loved by them. Sir Roger Bannister in 2013, photo by John CairnsĪlumnus and Honorary Fellow of Exeter College Sir Roger Bannister (1946, Physiological Sciences) has died, his family has announced.
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