Roger Bannister breaks the 4-minute mile record on 6th May 1954.

By Don Hale

Roger Bannister breaks the 4-minute mile record on 6th May 1954.

https://donhaleblog.blogspot.com

www.welshmastersathletics.co.uk

Television Newsreel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg7TwEhNqI8

Roger Bannister's epic race when he smashed the record for the 4-minute mile:

Bannister's time was recorded as 3 minutes 59.4 seconds. On the morning of May 6, 1954, a Thursday, Roger Bannister, 25, a medical student in London, worked his usual shift at St. Mary’s Hospital and took an early afternoon train to Oxford. He had lunch with some old friends, then met a couple of his track teammates, Christopher Chataway and Chris Brasher. As members of an amateur all-star team, they were preparing to run against Oxford University. About 1,200 people showed up at Oxford’s unprepossessing Iffley Road track to watch, and though the day was blustery and damp — inauspicious conditions for a record-setting effort — a record is what they saw. Paced by Chataway and Brasher and powered by an explosive kick, his signature, Bannister ran a mile in under four minutes — 3:59.4, to be exact — becoming the first man ever to do so, breaking through a mystical barrier and creating a seminal moment in sports history. Roger Bannister later spoke about how he did it. You can listen to it on the BBC Sounds Replay podcast. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08bqk9k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg7TwEhNqI8




Don Hale is a former award winning investigative journalist and now a best-selling author who has created a very popular blog post linked to numerous social media sites. donhaleblog.blogspot.com/2025.

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