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Lead Stories: Monday, December 1, 2008

Barleycorn, Bannister, Barriers and Beyond

Posted March 29th, 2008 at 8:00 AM by Jimmie R. Markham

Section: News & Results, Track & Field

Or, How I learned To Live Without New Mile World Records

Roger Bannister Breaks The Four-Minute Mile Barrier Between July 17th, 1945 and May 6th, 1954 a period of 3,215 days or 8 years, 9 months, 20 days passed. What’s so significant about that time period? Well, the track historians among you might recognize the latter date as one of considerable historical significance for our sport, for humanity, really. That was the date on which Great Britain’s Roger Bannister ran himself into immortality by becoming the first man to break four minutes for the mile run. Bannister ran 3:59.6 that day, surpassing the world record of 4:01.3 that had stood for nearly a decade and was owned by Sweden’s Gunder Hägg.

That time period of 3,215 days is the longest passage of time between world records in the mile since the IAAF era began in 1912. That dubious record is about to be broken. That’s right, folks – on April 25th, 2008, 3,216 days will have passed since Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco set the current world record of 3:43.13 for the mile run on July 7th, 1999. Those of you who consider yourselves to be track historians realize the significance of this fact. Before Bannister was able to break through that four-minute barrier, track pundits had been postulating that man had reached the limits of his abilities, that the four-minute barrier was impenetrable. They argued that so much time had passed since the world record had been broken, it was obvious that it would never again be broken; in fact, some argued that those foolhardy enough to try would die in the process. (A great account of the lead-up to Bannister’s historic achievement can be read in Neal Bascomb’s terrific book entitled The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes, One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve It.)
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