Coe leads tributes to history man Sir Roger Bannister, first four-minute miler
LONDON: Lord Sebastian Coe, president of world athletics federation IAAF, led the tributes to Sir Roger Bannister after the death at 88 of the first sub-four-minute miler.
Former Olympic champion Coe said: “His achievement transcended sport, let alone athletics. It was a moment in history that lifted the heart of a nation and boosted morale in a world that was still at a low ebb after the war.
“Roger was a friend of mine, there is not an athlete in my generation partially in middle distance that didn’t look up to him.We have all lost a giant and, for many of us, a deep and close friendship.
“I was inspired by what he went on to do after his athletics career because he become one of the world’s best neurologists and of course chaired the UK Sport council.”
Bannister’s time of three minutes 59.4 seconds, set at Iffley Road sports ground in Oxford on May 6, 1954, stood as a record for only 46 days but his place in athletics history was assured.
He also won gold over the same distance at the 1954 Commonwealth Games and later became a leading neurologist. He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2011.
A statement from his family 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. He banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends.”
Bannister viewed running as something to be done in his spare time away from the demands of his medical studies at the University of Oxford, but that did not prevent him reaching the biggest stages in the sport.
He was considered for the British team at the 1948 London Olympics – just two years after taking up running as a 17-year-old – but did earn a place in the team at the 1952 Games in Helsinki, where he set a new British record en route to fourth in the 1500 metres final.
Bannister, who used his medical knowledge to devise his own training regime and investigate the mechanical aspects of running, turned his sights on becoming the first person to run inside four minutes for the mile after the Olympics and twice went close to achieving his goal in 1953.
American Wes Santee and Australia’s John Landy were also targeting the record when Bannister finally achieved the feat in the spring of 1954.
Bannister was helped in his achievement by friends Sir Christopher Chataway and Chris Brasher, who acted as pacesetters.
Brasher, who went on to co-found the London Marathon, died in 2003 after a short illness and Chataway died from cancer in 2014.
Australian John Landy bettered Bannister’s record the following month with a time of 3:57.9.
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