Running News Daily

Should sub-four be no more?

Over the weekend at Boston University’s David Hemery Valentine Invitational, 52 runners went sub-four in the men’s mile, including five Canadians: Cameron Proceviat, Matthew Beaudet, Charlie Dannatt, Alec Purnell and Foster Malleck. With the advancement of super shoes and the responsiveness of the Boston indoor track, the sub-four-minute mile is still impressive, but is it as remarkable as it used to be?

Last week, Track and Field News, a database that has kept track of sub-four miles since Roger Bannister became the first man to break the barrier in 1954, announced it would no longer update its chronological list of runners who break the barrier. The site released a statement: “The advent of super-shoes has bombarded the 4:00 barrier into something no longer relevant for tracking, although many new members would have made it even without high-tech footwear.”According to an article in Outside, the original decision to scrap the list was based on the (non-scientific) belief that the sub-four stat had lost popularity.

In a later article, Track and Field News editor Garry Hill told Outside: “In retrospect, I now think the opposite might be true, as modern shoes/tracks/training have combined to make a shot at a sub-4:00 now a reasonable goal for a lot more people.”

At the 2023 Millrose Games in NYC, U.S. Olympian Yared Nuguse ran the second-fastest mile in history, clocking 3:47.38, a new North American record, and only milliseconds off the indoor mile world record of 3:47.01. The American track and field community celebrated the mark, but faster times also bring quicker standards and higher expectations.In the past five years, shoe technology and track surfaces have changed, and running must adapt with it.

The Boston University track, which was built in 2002, is unusual in that it was built to the maximum allowable specifications (in terms of the surface, the 18.5 degree steepness of the banked turns); it is considered one of the best tracks in the world for middle distance runners chasing fast times.And while these super spikes bring faster times, what are the athletes supposed to do? Buy old shoes to simulate Bannister’s iconic 1954 race with leather spikes on a cinder track?

As mile times for elite middle-distance runners now stray into the high-3:40s and low-3:50s, the sub-four mile matters less and less; but, like breaking three hours for a marathon or 20-minutes for a 5K, any competitive distance runners will always want their mile time to start with a three. That will never change.

After an online uproar, Track and Field News relented, and said they would continue to keep track of sub-four-milers in their database. To this day, it is still a feat only 75 Canadian men have accomplished (indoor and outdoor)—enough to fill a school bus. No matter how many runners break four, it will always be a barrier many will chase.

(02/19/2023) Views: 537 ⚡AMP
by Running Magazine

Here’s how to run faster just by thinking about it

Mental imagery for running performance has been used by elite athletes for decades and is simple enough for the regular runner to start trying tonight. You’ll give your brain a workout along with preparing yourself for your event. Ultrarunner and author of Mental Training for Ultrarunners, Addy Bracy, explains: “thinking about a specific exercise produces the same brain activity that occurs when the actual task is performed.” Here’s how to get started. 

Repetition

Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a 4-minute mile, used visualization techniques to get ready to tackle that famous distance. “Each night in the week before the race there came a moment when I saw myself at the starting line. My whole body would go nervous and tremble. I ran the race over in my mind. Then I would calm myself and sometimes go off to sleep” he wrote. If you’re familiar with the course or area that you’re going to run in, visualize yourself making your way through the course in your mind. If you’re training for a longer race, choose portions of it to run through. When you actually run the race it will feel familiar and comfortable. Try to incorporate as many of the five senses as possible: envision what you’re feeling in your body, what the air smells like, and notice the sights around you–you may feel silly doing this at first, but know that you’re training your brain to help you be a faster runner.

Visualize working through obstacles

Remember a time when you encountered something challenging in a race, whether it was discouraging thoughts, heavy legs or nausea. Imagine yourself working through that issue during your race with ease and finesse. Try this with a variety of obstacles. When you run into similar issues, your brain won’t react with shock and overwhelm; ideally, it will remember your mental practice and you’ll move fluidly through any problems. “Once you have identified possible stressors, see and feel yourself using your tools to calm your anxiety,” Bracy says. The more diverse the situations you work through in your brain, the more prepared you’ll actually be on race day. 

Imagine a strong race finish

Research suggests that our brain becomes fatigued and starts signaling us to stop running in the final quarter of a race. Spend more time focusing on this last section, and envision yourself tuning out any mental chatter to stride strongly towards that finish line. Bracy suggests linking together images of several past successes, “making sure to include the emotions and feelings you derived from those experiences. Use this to enhance feelings of confidence, belief and excitement leading into a race.” The brain is a powerful tool, and adding some brain training techniques to your regime will help you on race day. 

(07/08/2022) Views: 830 ⚡AMP
by Running Magazine

John Landy was a very special man

"The most incredibly stupid, beautiful, foolish, gentlemanly act I have ever witnessed." is how one spectator, a prominent Australian minister, described the mid-race occurence as pictured here.

I am saddened to share the news of the passing of mile legend, John Landy at the age 91.

You may best remember him for looking left while Roger Bannister passed on his right during the iconic 4 lapper dubbed the Miracle Mile at the 1954 Commonwealth Games.

Or perhaps you prefer to recall Landy as the second man under four minutes...his 3:57.9, run in Turku Finland, came just 46 days after the more widely lauded Bannister barrier breaker.

But when I think of John Landy, my very first image of him comes from the 1956 Australian National Championships. In an announced goal prior to that meeting's one mile run, Landy hoped to break his own world record.

Instead, midway through said mile, one that attracted 22,000 spectators, there was some jostling that caused a runner to go down on the cinders. It was the 19-year old Aussie national junior champ, Ron Clarke. Landy, hurdled over the fallen competitor but clipped the youngster's shoulder with his spikes. Rather than continue forward, Landy stopped, turned around and lent Clarke a hand back to his feet.

Now, some 60 yards behind the leaders, Landy, one by one, reeled in the entire field and went on to win in a remarkable 4:04.2.

John Landy's one mile world record may have lasted just three years, but his selfless act of sportsmanship shall endear him to this track fan into perpetuity.

(02/26/2022) Views: 1,008 ⚡AMP
by Mike Fanelli

John Landy has died at age 91

John Landy, a scholarly Australian who became the second man, after Roger Bannister of England, to run the mile in under four minutes, and who later dueled Bannister in a race that became known as the Mile of the Century, died on Thursday at his home in Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. He was 91.

His death was reported by the country’s main public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

For as long as races were measured in time, running a mile in less than four minutes had remained one of humankind’s seemingly unbreachable barriers. But by 1954, three of the world’s greatest runners — Landy, Bannister and Wes Santee of the United States — had been edging closer to that mark and appeared ready to shatter it.

All three faced obstacles: Landy, at just over 5-foot-11 and 150 pounds, was running on slower grass tracks in Australia; Bannister was deep into medical studies at Oxford; and Santee had to run three relays for the University of Kansas in almost every meet.

Bannister reached four minutes first, running a mile in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds on May 6, 1954, in Oxford. Not to be outdone, Landy, who graduated from Melbourne University that year with a degree in agricultural science, headed for Europe and its faster tracks.

On June 21 — 46 days after Bannister’s historic race — Landy lowered the world record even more, to 3:57.9, in Turku, Finland. (According to the timing rules of the day, which called for mile records to be listed in fifths rather than tenths of a second, the time was listed as 3:58.0; it is now recognized as 3:57.9, the actual time recorded by four timers.)

As Landy saw it, he and Bannister had simply done the inevitable. “Four minutes was not a psychological barrier,” he said. “Someone was going to break it. If there hadn’t been a war, it would have fallen 10 years earlier.”

Landy’s record would last three years; it was broken in 1957 by Derek Ibbotson of England, who ran 3:57.2. (The current record is 3:43.13, run by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco.)

 

(02/25/2022) Views: 878 ⚡AMP
by NY Times

Something you might not know about this past world mile record holder

Aside from perhaps Roger Bannister (a 4:52 high school miler who PRed at 3:59.4) or John Landy (a 4:43.8 kid who eventually went 3:58), you'd be hard pressed to find another 'more improved' miler than Dick Buerkle.

As a Rochester, NY schoolboy, Dick's PB was but 4:28 (and just 10:01 for 2 miles)...yet, he somehow managed to later produce a quite remarkable 3:54.93, to become the unlikliest of all one mile world record holders.

(01/11/2022) Views: 1,141 ⚡AMP
by Mike Fanelli

The surprisingly simple training of the world’s first sub-4 minute miler, How Roger Bannister prepared for his historic run?

Before Sir Roger Bannister’s historic run in 1954, running fans and experts believed that the sub-four-minute mile was not possible. When he crossed the finish line at the University of Oxford’s Iffley Road track in 3:59.4 66 years ago, he changed the course of running history forever, opening the door for thousands more to follow.

You might be surprised, then, to find out that in order to set this historic record, Bannister only trained for about five hours per week.

Twitter user @jmarpdx recently tweeted an exert from the book How They Train by Fred Wilt, which provides a brief description of Bannister’s training regime leading up to his breakthrough run. According to the book, he started training in December (five months before the race) and only ran for one hour, five days per week during his lunch hour.

His sessions almost always consisted of some form of interval training, including workouts like 10 x 440 yards (400m), 7 x 880 yards (800m) and 3/4 mile (1,200m) time trials.

Of course, today we have a lot more knowledge regarding training protocols, mileage and recovery, but this sample from Bannister’s training is an example of how sometimes, simplicity is the best path forward.

(12/01/2021) Views: 1,110 ⚡AMP
by Brittany Hambleton

Britain’s two-time Olympian and four-time AAA champion in the late 1940s and early 1950s Bill Nankeville, passes away aged 95

One of the most popular British athletes of the post-war period, Bill Nankeville, has died aged 95. A two-time Olympian, he finished sixth in the 1500m final in London in 1948 before going on to capture four AAA one-mile titles and a bronze medal at the European Championships in 1950.

During an era when tens of thousands of fans packed into the White City Stadium to watch athletics, Nankeville was one of the biggest names in the sport as he entertained spectators with his elegant style and tactical acumen.

In recent years he has become known to many as “Bobby Davro’s dad”, but for those familiar with his middle-distance running exploits he was one of the legendary figures of British athletics and the comedian Davro was simply “Bill Nankeville’s son”.

Davro, who achieved fame as a television comedian in the 1980s before later appearing in EastEnders, broke the news of his father’s death on social media on Friday (January 10) with an emotional message that read: “Today I lost my best friend and my hero. The most wonderful human being I have ever known. I’m so proud of him. He was GB mile champion and represented his country in two Olympic games but to me he was just “Dad”. I will miss him so very much and I will love him forever.”

Born on March 24, 1925, Nankeville’s early career was interrupted by World War II. He joined the army himself when he was 19 in April 1944 and made parachute containers and petrol tanks before being posted overseas to Brussels, Hamburg and to the concentration camp at Belsen shortly after it was liberated in 1945.

Running for the army in Belgium rekindled the athletics ability he had shown as a child and he soon began to make an impact. His rise was swift and in 1948 he won the first of a quartet of AAA one-mile titles and reached the Olympic 1500m final in London.

The Olympic final was run on a rain-soaked track with Swedish duo Henry Eriksson and Lennart Strand finishing one-two with Nankeville just over a couple of seconds behind the winner in sixth place.

Two years later at the European Championships in Brussels he won a bronze medal in a race won by Wim Slijkhuis of the Netherlands.

When the next Olympics took place, however, in Helsinki in 1952, Nankeville finished ninth in his semi-final as the leading British runner was Roger Bannister, who finished fourth in a final won by Josy Barthel of Luxembourg.

Nankeville and Bannister teamed up with Chris Chataway and Don Seaman to break the world 4 x one-mile record with 16:41.0 in 1953. In addition, Nankeville was part of teams that broke relay world records for the 4 x 880 yards (7:30.6) in 1951 and 4 x 1500m (15:27.2) in 1953.

After his athletics career ended, Nankeville worked for a sports manufacturing company and earned a reputation as a ‘Del boy’ figure due to his sharp business sense and likability.

(01/11/2021) Views: 1,080 ⚡AMP
by Jason Henderson

Sebastian Coe said on Friday he embraced new track technology that features pacemaking lights, a system used to great effect in two stunning world records last week

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said on Friday he embraced new track technology that features pacemaking lights, a system used to great effect in two stunning world records last week.Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei (men's 10,000m) and Ethiopia's Letesenbet Gidey (women's 5,000m) blew two longstanding records apart in Valencia.

Both athletics had a team of metronomic pacemakers around them who utilised Wavelight technology -- a trackside visual time guidance system which lights up to indicate the world record pace."You have to innovate, there's no question about that," Coe said in Gdynia, Poland, ahead of Saturday's world half-marathon races. 

While acknowledging there was a balance to be struck, Coe argued that technological advances were paramount in attracting new audiences.

"You need to create a connection and the key connection is understanding.

"Pace lights I have no problem with. Our one-day meetings are about entertainment and I think Wavelight that allow people on television, to understand a little bit more about the incredible talent, the incredible talent, the incredible speeds our competitors are running at actually lends to the type of understanding I want."

Coe also argued that pacemakers had been around for decades, notably citing Roger Bannister's first sub-four-minute mile as a "pace-made event".

(10/16/2020) Views: 1,067 ⚡AMP

Diane Leather and Roger Bannister – the similarities and differences of two trailblazers

The world reverberated with the news that Roger Bannister had become the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes on 6 May 1954. Twenty three days later, a landmark was achieved in the women’s mile when fellow Briton Diane Leather became the first to dip under five minutes – unheralded, and, at the time, without fanfare.

Bannister’s progress continued to top the sporting agenda as he beat his Australian rival, and by then world mile record-holder, John Landy at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, before hoovering up the European 1500m title and retiring to start a stellar career in medical research.

Leather remained as a runner until 1961, but while she won two silver medals in the 800m at the European Championships, and captained the women’s team at the 1960 Rome Olympics, she never got the chance to run at her best distance in a major international championship.

Less than a month after Bannister had clocked 3:59.4 at the Iffley Road track in Oxford, Leather recorded 4:59.6 at the Alexander Sports Ground in Birmingham – reacting with the words “Oh good. At last” – and the following year she ran 4:50.8 and then 4:45.0, which remained a world record until 1962.

By then Leather – who had also set an 800m world record of 2:09 in 1954 – had retired, aged 27. Women’s records for the mile were not ratified until 1967, and she never had the opportunity to race over her preferred distance at an international championship.

Both runners were honoured at the World Athletics Heritage Mile Night in Monaco last month with awards being made to Leather’s daughter, Lindsey Armstrong, and Bannister’s daughters Erin Bannister-Townsend and Charlotte Bannister-Parker.

The contrast in recognition for two great athletes who both died in 2018 was mirrored, oddly, in a contrast in recognition within their own families.

Lindsay Armstrong had no idea that her mum had been an athlete, or indeed a world record-holder, until she was 11.

“She didn’t tell me herself,” recalled Lindsay, who runs Shakespeare’s Schoolroom and Guildhall in Stratford-upon-Avon. “I learned about it when I found some scrapbooks that one of her brothers had kept. They were on the bottom shelves somewhere in the sitting room, just tucked away.

“I didn’t know what to do about it – it was almost as if I was being naughty!

“In the end it wasn’t really such a big conversation. She said it was just something she used to do.

“I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. She wasn’t shy and retiring. But it was just something she’d done.

“On the day she broke five minutes for the mile, she had broken an 800m record earlier that day – it may have been a national record. So she had two great legs on her.

“She ran in the Olympics in 1960, but again they still didn’t allow her to run the mile. There was nothing further than the 200 until 1960 and then they were allowed to do the 800m. So she was the women’s team captain but she didn’t get to the final. Because, you know, it was six years past her prime. We have still got her Olympic jacket at home. She stopped soon after that.

“She didn’t talk about her athletics. I know that in later years according to people that knew her then that she felt somewhat slighted, and instead of letting it upset her she just turned away from athletics earlier than she would have done.

“But she did a lot of officiating in athletics after her career. So she didn’t really turn away from the sport. She always loved it.

“She was an extraordinary athlete. She ran the 400m, she ran the relay, she was a cross country champion. She did a huge range of distances.

“She was a chemist and she went on to be a child social worker. That was her passion. She was more than just an athlete. She was an extraordinary woman who really did change lives.

“She was beautiful – so beautiful. You could see it in the film we just watched. And it was really lovely to see. We were so proud of her. To be here with all these other extraordinary runners – she would have loved to be here.”

By contrast, Bannister’s daughters Charlotte, who is a Church of England Minister at the University Church in Oxford, and Erin, an accomplished painter, recalled their father introducing athletics into their life from the point where they could remember.

“I think it would be fair to say that my father was a pretty humble man throughout his life considering what he achieved both medically and athletically,” said Charlotte.

“But in terms of us being aware that he was a runner and that running was important was something that happened right from the start of my very consciousness.

“We were encouraged to run every day. There was a little park outside our house which was a square, and he would run every day of his life, right until he had a car accident and he no longer could. But it was deeply engrained within our childhood. Much more… why it was good for you…

Her sister continued the narrative: “Why he loved to be outside… being outdoors, and including other sports, including climbing and walking, and tennis, and sailing, and a whole range of sports. He was always trying things that weren’t necessarily to do with athletics. So things like sailing were quite dangerous, but they gave us enormous fun.”

Charlotte recalled: “He would train us to get off the starting line. He just loved watching people run, and he would come to our school sports days and he would look around the field and he would say that young boy or that young girl, they have got great style.

“And then of course he was broadcasting at the Olympics as a journalist – that was one of the times we were allowed to watch television, to see the Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games.

“He didn’t generally talk about his athletics, but during anniversaries of his achievements he would sometimes talk about them, and he would talk about how his father had taken him to see athletics very early on.

“I remember going to Crystal Palace with him a lot. And then of course when he was Chairman of the Sports Council he would have to attend a lot of sporting events and if my mother couldn’t make it he would take one of us children.

“And then of course there were interviews. When something happened in the athletics world, he used to get rung up by the BBC and asked to comment on things to do with drugs, apartheid, politics…”

Both recalled travelling to Vancouver in 1967 for the unveiling of a statue depicting the decisive moment of the Vancouver Mile race, when Landy looked back inside him as their father was making his decisive burst of speed in the lane outside.

Charlotte added: “We used to have very interesting Sunday lunches, where there were always discussions around politics, athletics and sport, and it would be a summary of the week’s news and what was going on in the wider world. So there was no sense of not being involved in what was his passion – or of him not passing on his passion to us.”

(12/15/2019) Views: 2,126 ⚡AMP
by World Athletics

Peter Snell has died in Dallas. He was a three-time Olympic champion and world mile record-holder

Three-time Olympic champion and world mile record-holder Peter Snell has died in Dallas. He was aged 80.

Snell, who is regarded as one of the greatest middle-distance runners, won the 800 meters at the 1960 Rome Olympics aged 21, and the 800-1,500 double at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

He was the first man since 1920 to win the 800 and 1,500 at the same Olympics. No male athlete has done so since.

Snell also won two Commonwealth Games gold medals in the 880 yards and mile at Perth in 1962.

He twice held the mile world record, and held world records in the 800 meters, 880 yards, 1,000 meters, and the 4x1-mile relay.

Snell's death was confirmed by family friend and New Zealand sports historian Ron Palenski, who heads New Zealand's Sport Hall of Fame.

“It is very sad news, a grievous loss for New Zealand,” Palenski said. “In terms of track and field, he is probably the greatest athlete New Zealand has had.”

Snell was coached by Arthur Lydiard, an innovator who was regarded as one of the world’s finest coaches of middle and long distance athletes. Lydiard also coached Murray Halberg to win the 5,000 meters at Rome in 1960.

Snell was the best miler of his generation, at a time when the mile was the blue riband event of world athletics. He began immediately after Roger Bannister's epoch-making sub-four-minute mile and while the glow of that achievement still suffused the sport.

In his physique he was unlike milers of the time: Snell was strong and powerful — more like a 400-meter runner — and not like the mostly lithe athletes who vied for world supremacy over the mile.

His stride was so powerful he often scarred the tracks on which he ran, kicking up puffs of debris, especially on grass or cinder tracks. Lydiard's training — based on massive mileage mostly on the road rather than the track — gave him enormous stamina but he also had unusual speed.

Snell's friend and training partner, Olympic marathon bronze medalist Barry Magee said “there will never be another New Zealand athlete like him.”

“He won three Olympic gold medals, two Commonwealth Games gold medals, and broke seven world records. He was the best-conditioned athlete of his time.”

Snell’s wife, Miki, said he died suddenly at his home in Dallas around noon on Thursday. He had been suffering from a heart ailment and required a pacemaker for several years.

Snell’s athletics career was relatively short. He retired in 1965 to pursue educational opportunities in the United States.

"Peter Snell was like a god to me," says MBR founder Bob Anderson.  "I started running in February 1962 and Peter was my hero.  I met him at one of our National Running Weeks in the early 80's and it was like meeting a rock star."

Snell graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in human performance from the University of California, Davis, and later with a Ph.D. in exercise physiology from Washington State University.

He became a research fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 1981, later becoming director of the university's Human Performance Center.

Snell was knighted by New Zealand in 2009. A statue in his honor stands at Cooks Gardens, Whanganui, near his birthplace of Opunake, where he broke the mile world record for the first time in 1962.

(12/13/2019) Views: 1,743 ⚡AMP
by Associated Press

The film ‘Bannister: Everest on the Track’ takes FICA Golden Achilles prize

The US-produced film Bannister: Everest on the Track has won the top prize, the Golden Achilles, at the second International Athletics Film Festival in San Sebastian.

The announcement was made on Saturday (9) after a week-long series of screenings in the Basque city and follows in the footsteps of Town of Runners which won in 2018.

This year’s winning film looks at the motivations that inspired Roger Bannister to his historic feat of being the first person to run under four minutes for the mile and puts it in a historic context of what it meant to the British public, coming as it did less than nine years after the end of World War II.

To quote from one of the reviews when the film was first released: “Everest on the Track is as much a historical study of Britain's psychological, if not almost physical, need for something – anything – to erase the woes of World War II as it is a fresh look at the quest for the first sub-4:00 mile, the heretofore deemed physically impossible.”

Among those interviewed during the documentary are Bannister himself, one of his pacemakers Chris Chataway, who was later to go on and break the 5000m world record, as well as US runner George Dole who competed in the famous race at Iffley Road while a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University.

Also interviewed are spectators on that day more than 65 years ago, 6 May 1954, when one of the most well-known feats in sporting history was achieved, as well as journalists and historians along with future world mile world record holders John Landy – with whom Bannister was in a long-distance duel to become the first man to go under the historic barrier – Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram.

Back to the beginning

“We first started thinking about the film in 2014 when there was the 60th anniversary of the four-minute mile,” said the film’s director Tom Ratcliffe, who was in San Sebastian to hear the announcement that his documentary had taken the top prize. “It’s a feat that has a heritage and legacy unlike any other in athletics and perhaps sport as a whole. Roger Bannister’s achievement is one that still resonates today.

“We were very lucky in so far as one of the first people we interviewed was Chris Chataway. He was wonderfully erudite, entertaining and enthusiastic even though he was very ill with lung cancer and sadly died not long after the interviews.

“Roger (Bannister) was a bit more reticent at first. Helpful, but reserved. I think he thought ‘Oh, it’s just another interview’, but once he saw an early version of what we were doing, he then relaxed and was very generous. He said to call him whenever I was in England and I went to his house several times to do some further interviews.

“The first full version came out in 2016 and then the film has been revised since then in 2018 to take account of Roger’s death. We had many wonderful interviews and it was a case of weaving them together into a coherent film.”

(11/16/2019) Views: 1,264 ⚡AMP

Organizer Jim Ratcliffe says this about the sub two hour marathon attempt coming up: Nobody's been able to achieve this. It's not unlike trying to put a man on the moon.

Eliud Kipchoge will attempt to break the two-hour barrier for the marathon in Vienna in October after London was snubbed for the Ineos 1:59 Challenge.

The challenge - 65 years after Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile - had been thought more likely to take place in the UK after the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha.

Instead, the Kenyan world record-holder will make his second bid to run the first sub-two-hour marathon in the Austrian capital on October 12.

"After an extensive worldwide assessment process, The Prater - the famous Viennese park - has been chosen by the INEOS 1:59 Challenge as the venue that will give Kipchoge the optimum conditions to write himself into the history books," Ineos said.

Kipchoge ran the marathon in a time of two hours and 25 seconds on the Monza race track in Italy in his previous attempt to break the two-hour mark. He was assisted by pacemakers who ran set sections of the course on that occasion, meaning it was not recognised as a world record.

The 34-year-old 2016 Olympic gold medal winner set the current world record in Berlin last September when running 2:01:39, beating the previous best by 78 seconds.

He also ran the second-fastest time in history when completing the London marathon in April in a time of 2:02:37.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the Ineos chairman, said: "Eliud Kipchoge is the greatest ever marathon runner and the only athlete in the world who has any chance of beating the two-hour time.

"Nobody's been able to achieve this. It's not unlike trying to put a man on the moon."

(06/29/2019) Views: 1,745 ⚡AMP
by Tom Morgan

Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge will once again attempt to become the first athlete to break the two-hour marathon barrier in an event being staged in London later this year

Dubbed the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, this race against the clock -- to be staged in late September or early October -- is being backed by Britain's richest man Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire owner of chemical firm INEOS, which recently purchased British Cycling's Team Sky.

"It's human nature to push boundaries," said the INEOS 1:59 Challenge website. "The drive to learn and achieve more is in our DNA. In Autumn this year Eliud Kipchoge, with support from INEOS, plans to redefine the limits of human achievement by breaking the last great barrier of modern athletics -- the two-hour marathon."

Last week Ratcliffe and INEOS were accused by environmental protesters of "sportswashing" -- using sport to enhance reputation -- an accusation the Briton completely rejects.

Speaking to reporters ahead of cycling's Tour de Yorkshire, Ratcliffe took aim at those who criticized his company's fracking project, claiming the majority of environmental groups he has met are "ignorant" of the process, adding it remains a cheap source of energy.

Current world record holder Kipchoge recorded a time of 2:00.25 during a similar event at Monza -- home of the Formula One Italian Grand Prix -- in 2017 wasn't recognized as a world record as it did not adhere to the rules laid out by athletics' governing body, the IAAF, notably in the way he was helped by "in-out" pacemakers. The London attempt will also not be ratified.

The 34-year-old Kenyan set a new record time for the London marathon earlier this month as he claimed a fourth triumph in the event -- a record for a male athlete.

His time of two hours, two minutes and 37 seconds was the second fastest marathon of all time -- just behind his own world record of two hours, one minute and 39 seconds which was recorded in Berlin in September 2018.

"This would really surpass everything because this will go in the history as far as the human family is concerned," Kipchoge told reporters ahead of Monday's event launch, which took place 65 years to the day since Britain's Roger Bannister became the first man to break the four minute mile.

According to reports, Kipchoge's attempt in London will use a number of pacemakers who run laps, while dipping in and out of the action, in order to maintain the astonishing pace of two minutes, 50 seconds per kilometer needed to go under two hours.

"It is not about recognition or ratification but to make history and to pass on a message that no human is limited. Running the fastest-ever marathon of 2:00.25 was the proudest moment of my career," added Kipchoge.

Ratcliffe also had to defend INEOS over its use of plastics after its acquisition of Team Sky, which had been leading a campaign against single-use plastics and Ocean Rescue campaign.

"We've spent 30 years working on the INEOS project and made it very large and very profitable," Ratcliffe said.

"We make $5-7 billion a year in profit so there's no harm in investing a modest amount of that into very worthy sporting endeavors which we enjoy.

"If they inspire people towards a healthier lifestyle, that's a good thing but there's also nothing wrong in investing money in something simply enjoyable. I like the theatre, I like opera. But I prefer sport."

Ratcliffe, a keen cyclist and a well known running enthusiast, also sponsors children's running charities, GO Run For Fun and The Daily Mile, with the aim of getting more young people into the sport.

"If Eliud has got a fantastic crowd cheering him on, its going to make a bit of difference and we don't need to make a lot of difference to make up 26 seconds," he told reporters.

"I was in the pace car in front of Eliud for the London Marathon and he was looking very serene and comfortable. He's still getting better.

"Eliud is the finest marathon runner there has ever been and I think it will be very inspirational, to get kids putting running shoes on.

"It would be an extraordinary achievement. It's almost super-human, isn't it really? To break two hours in a marathon is quite unthinkable."

(05/06/2019) Views: 2,176 ⚡AMP
by James Masters

The first woman to break five minutes for the mile almost went unnoticed

Diane Leather ensured her place in athletics history when she became the first woman to break five minutes for the mile in 1954. She achieved the feat three weeks after Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile.  She died September 6 peacefully, aged 85, following a short illness just six months after the sport lost Bannister. There were other parallels between the two athletes.  While Bannister was a medical student in Oxford, Leather was an analytical chemist at the University of Birmingham and a member of Birchfield Harriers. One thing they did not share, though, was the fame that came with their miling achievements. As Bannister became a global icon, Leather’s sub-five mile did not receive anywhere near the same publicity. This was an era when the longest event for women at the 1952 Olympics was just 200m and the mile was not recognised by the IAAF as a world record and was described as a world best instead. Leather first set a women’s world record, or ‘best’ as it was called, in September 1953 when she clocked 5:02.6. She improved to 5:00.2 on May 26, 1954, followed by her historic 4:59.6 three days later on May 29. Her sub-five time came despite erratic splits too – 68.8, 2:27.00 and 3:48.6. But further records came with 4:50.8 and 4:45.0 in 1955 and she held the world mark for eight years in total. (09/10/2018) Views: 1,859 ⚡AMP

Global Run Challenge Profile: After Paul Shimon watched Roger Bannister on TV set the world mile record he was hooked

RUN THE WORLD: Running is a major part of Paul Shimon's life.  "I hate being injured," Paul says.  But he doesn't stop.  "I try to limp along furthering my injury but mentally I am more adjusted! I get depressed if I can't run."  He also loves to read historical running stories and check out results from the past.  He has a good take on the sport.  " I make sure to run in tough conditions so ordinary days are a snap and a treat," he says and he feels that, "training tough makes racing easy."  He got interested in running in grade school in 1954.  "I watched Roger Bannister on tv set the mile record and I was hooked," he remembers.  Paul's marathon PR is 2:30.12 clocked at the third Olympiad Marathon in St. Louis. He has run 135 marathons.  Some other PR's include 4:26 for the mile, 14:34 for 5k, and 33:30 for 10k.  "I got to run in the San Blas International Marathon (Puerto Rico) back in the early 70"s.  Roberto Clemente's (famous baseball player) mother gave out the awards to the top 50 and I was lucky enough to receive one," he says.  Paul is married with a son and daughter. He is still teaching APE (Adapted Physical Education) and this will be his 49th year.  Why did he sign up for the Run The World Challenge?  "I love this challenge. It is getting me to run more and I already feel a higher level of conditioning.  I am quicker to get out the door too," Paul says.     (07/17/2018) Views: 1,838 ⚡AMP
by Bob Anderson

laszlo Tabori was the third man to break four minutes for the mile

DID YOU KNOW: Laszlo Tabori was the third man in history to break the sub-four minute mile barrier, setting a new European Record with a time of 3:59 on May 28, 1955. Roger Bannister was there. Laszlo posted this on Facebook March 5th after Roger Bannister passed away.  

“One of my favorite pictures with Sir Roger Bannister... We were all chasing the sub 4 minute mile. In those days it was a feat comparable only with climbing Mt. Everest. Roger was someone I looked up to and admired.  

At the height of his running career, he stopped in order to concentrate on his studies in medicine. I had the great fortune to be one of the early ones who followed in his footsteps just a year later at White City Stadium, London.  Here Roger is shaking my hand and offering congratulations as I had quite unexpectedly just became the 3rd person to enter this very elite sub-4 min mile club,” wrote Laszlo Tabori.  

Laszlo was born in Košice. Although he had already taken up running in his youth, his serious career only started in the early 1950s under Mihály Iglói, the legendary coach. 

Among Laszlo’s many accomplishments include being an Olympian in the 1956 Olympic Games in the 1500 and 5000m races.  Mihaly Igloi and his track team were in Budapest, and saw the chaos of the Soviet invasion, but were fortunate to leave the country and arrive in Melbourne.

Understandably, the Hungarians performed poorly at the Games. After the competition, Igloi, and one of his top runners, Laszlo Tabori, made the fateful decision to forgo their return to Hungary and defect to the United States.

Tábori retired from running in 1962, since he couldn’t compete for Hungry and was not a United States citizen. Tábori returned to distance running as a coach in 1967, his training methods based directly on Iglói's, and has been the coach of San Fernando Valley Track Club since 1973.  

(05/16/2018) Views: 12,426 ⚡AMP
by Bob Anderson

Should the mile be added back into the Commonwealth Games? How about the 1500m?

A mile race could be added to the programme for future editions of the Commonwealth Games as part of a broader attempt to embrace the heritage of athletics. International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Sebastian Coe spoke enthusiastically about such a plan here today when asked about possible innovations. The mile featured on the programme at all editions of the event until Kingston 1966, when it was replaced by the 1,500 metres. It is not yet clear if a restored mile would sit alongside, or instead of, the 1,500m, although the latter scenario seems more likely due to the similarities between the events. "We have had the thought of introducing the mile back into the Commonwealth Games and I have an ambition to create and celebrate our own heritage, because often we have events that are the bedrock of our history," Coe said. "Some of the great moments in track and field have been established in a Commonwealth Games. "We still talk about the Miracle Mile, 1954 in Vancouver, these are indelible moments." The Miracle Mile saw England's Sir Roger Bannister beat Australian rival John Landy at Vancouver 1954 in the first race in which two men broke the four minute barrier. "The mile is something that we have been talking with the IAAF about recently, particularly with the passing of Roger Bannister," added Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive David Grevemberg today in Australia. (04/08/2018) Views: 1,720 ⚡AMP

Gunder Hagg's world records stood for almost a Decade

DID YOU KNOW: Gunder Hagg set over a dozen middle distance world records at events ranging from 1500 to 5000 meters, including three at both the 1500 meters and the mile, one at 3000 meters and one at 5000 meters. It all began on New Year’s Eve 1918 when Gunder Hägg was born on a small farm in the forests of northern Sweden. From a fairly early age he had to help out on the family farm where the main income came from timber work. His school was three kilometers away a distance which he walked, ran or travelled by ski (in the winter) every day. Hagg and fellow Swede, Arne Andersson, lowered the record for the mile to just over four minutes (4:01.4). Both athletes set three world records for the mile. However, Hagg had the last word when he ran 4:01.4 in Malmö, Sweden in 1945 (Hagg’s record was not broken until Roger Bannister ran the first sub-4 mile in Oxford in 1954). Hagg was also the first man to run a sub-14 minute 5000m. All these performances were run on cinder tracks. He certainly made his mark in athletics history: At the main distances (1500m, 1 Mile and 5000m) his records stood until 1954, for about a decade! Gunder Hagg passed away November 27, 2004 at the age of 85. (04/06/2018) Views: 2,435 ⚡AMP

British Milers Club is launching the Bannister Mile Series

The British Milers Club is staging a new Bannister Mile Series in memory of Sir Roger Bannister, who died last month aged 88. Sir Roger ran the world’s first sub-4 minute Mile clocking 3:59.4 in Oxford on May 6 and he was also founding president of the British Milers Club. The 2018 series kicks off with men’s and women’s ‘City Mile’ races at Lee Valley in north London on May 9 – just three days after the anniversary of Sir Roger’s famous feat. The BMC is the premier middle distance athletics club in the United Kingdom. Through its racing program, training courses and coaching articles they aim to improve the world standing of UK Middle Distance running. The BMC was established in 1963. (04/06/2018) Views: 2,196 ⚡AMP

Jim Ryun and family mourns the passing of this giant of a man - Dr Roger Bannister

Jim Ryun posted this on FB today, “This signed photo of Dr Bannister’s breaking the four minute mile barrier graces our living room wall - a reminder that those of us who followed him stand on his shoulders. He made the massive break through that allowed us to imagine and dream of “what’s possible now?” It’s hard to fully appreciate the strength, both mental and physical, that it takes to be the first one who makes the breakthrough. The Ryun family mourns the passing of this giant of a man.” Jim Ryun won a silver medal in the men's 1500 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and was the first high school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes. He is the last American to hold the world record in the mile run (3:51.1). Ryun later served in the United States House of Representatives from 1996 to 2007. (03/04/2018) Views: 5,113 ⚡AMP

Roger Bannister’s achievement transcended sport, let alone athletics says Seb Coe

(Keith Burge on Twitter)...On the 6th of May 1954 Sir Roger Bannister did a shift at St Mary's Hospital in London, then sharpened his running spikes in the hospital lab, took the train to Oxford, grabbed some lunch, walked to the track and then ran a mile in under 4 minutes...(from NY Times) 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. (BBC Sports) IAAF president, Seb Coe, two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist for Great Britain and three-time mile world record holder says, "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. We have all lost a giant and, for many of us, a deep and close friendship.” Sir Roger Bannister passed away March 3, 2018 in Oxford, England. R.I.P. (03/04/2018) Views: 2,283 ⚡AMP

Roger Bannister who was the first person to break four minutes for the mile has died

Sir Roger Bannister, the first athlete to run a sub-four minute mile, has died aged 88 in Oxford, his family have said.

A statement released on behalf of Sir Roger's family said: "Sir Roger Bannister, died peacefully in Oxford on 3rd March 2018, 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." British Prime Minister Theresa May led the tributes to the former athlete, who later became one of Europe's leading neurologists and was made a knight.

Sir Roger "made the impossible possible" and completed his record-breaking feat in 3 minutes 59.4 seconds at Iffley Road sports ground in Oxford on May 6, 1954

(03/04/2018) Views: 4,352 ⚡AMP

Emmanuel Bor Becomes 500th American to Break four minutes

Roger Bannister was the first runner to run the mile in under four minutes. He ran 3:59.4 on May 6, 1954. Don Bowden (pictured) was the first American to go under four minutes. He ran 3:58.7 on June 1, 1957. According to the website LetsRun "Emmanuel Bor of the U.S. Army WCAP became the 500th American to break 4:00 in the mile, running a time (3:58.77) eerily similar to Bowden’s original mark on a bouncy, banked indoor oval at Boston University on Saturday." (01/28/2018) Views: 1,716 ⚡AMP

Diane Leather Ran Sub 5 minute Mile In 1954

MBR FAST FACT: The first woman to run the mile in under five minutes was done May 29 1954 in Birmingham England. Diane Leather ran 4:59.6, just 23 days after Roger Bannister became the first ever man to run a sub 4-minute mile. Her best time came September 21, 1955 in London when she ran 4:45.0. However, it was not until 1967 that the IAAF started recognizing women's world records at this distance. Seems like the IAAF should consider these marks? (12/22/2017) Views: 1,646 ⚡AMP