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-
- @
- Roger Bannister
- was Britain's
- leading mile
- runner in the
- early Fifties.
- Here he is seen
- at the age of 20,
- running the mile
- in the student
- championships at
- the White City, in
- London. He won
- that day, with a
- time of 4 minutes
- 20 seconds
- #
- Bannister achieved
- athletic immort-
- ality on May 6,
- 1954, when he
- became the first
- man to run the
- mile in less than
- four minutes. He
- was helped by two
- pacemakers, Chris
- Brasher and Chris
- Chataway
- #
- As Bannister
- himself said,
- "The four-
- minute mile had
- become rather like
- an Everest, a
- challenge to the
- human spirit." His
- achievement was
- very big news in
- Britain: this is how
- The Times of
- London reported
- the story on the
- day after
- Bannister's record
- #
- A year after the
- record, Bannister
- revealed his feel-
- ings about his
- achievement,
- with pacemakers
- Brasher and
- Chataway: "We
- shared a place
- where no man
- had yet ventured
- - secure for all
- time, however
- fast men may run
- in the future." In
- fact his record
- stood for only a
- few weeks
- #
- Bannister retired
- from athletics at
- the end of 1954.
- He trained as a
- neurologist, and
- later became
- Master of
- Pembroke College,
- Oxford. He keeps
- both the shoes
- and the number he
- wore when setting
- the mile record in
- a box at his home
- - but he doesn't
- know where
- @
-