Roger Bannister marks 60th anniversary of sub four-minute mile
Runner, now 85, recalls the day on May 6 when he broke the barrier that many said was humanly impossible
Sixty years later, Roger Bannister is busy reliving the four minutes that still endure as a transcendent moment in sports history.
It was on a wet, blustery spring day - May 6, 1954 - that the lanky English medical student became the first runner to break the fabled 4-minute barrier in the mile, a feat that many had thought was humanly impossible.
Helped by two pace makers, the 25-year-old Bannister completed four laps around a cinder track in Oxford in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds, a milestone that captured the world's fascination and still resonates today.
There was this magic about four symmetrical laps of one minute each
"It was a target," Bannister, now 85 and fighting Parkinson's disease, said at his Oxford home, a short distance from the Iffley Road track where he made his name.
"University athletes had been trying for years and it just didn't seem to be capable of being broken. There was this magic about four symmetrical laps of one minute each.
"It was just something, which caught the public's imagination. I think it still remains something that is of interest and intrigue."
Bannister's record lasted just 46 days, and he considers his victory over Australian rival John Landy a few months later as his greatest running exploit.