This Day in Track & Field, May 6, Roger Bannister's historic 3:59.4, the first sub 4 minute mile (1954), compiled, curated and edited by Walt Murphy

This Day in Track & Field–May 6

Deep Thoughts on the Opening of the 2025 Diamond League in Xiamen, China

South Africa Delivered, Jamaica Faltered, and Spain Stunned Us All

This Day in Track & Field, May 12, Joan Benoit Samuelson takes Olympic Trials Marathon weeks after arthroscopic surgery (1984), compiled and written by Walt Murphy

1954–No event has had more of an impact on the sport than Roger Bannister’s historic 3:59.4 mile at the Oxford University track on Iffley Road. Sweden’s Gunder Hägg had held the world record of 4:01.4 since 1945 and the race to become the first man in history to break 4-minutes for the Mile had been joined by three men–Bannister, Australia’s John Landy, and American Wes Santee.

Bannister enlisted two friends to help set the pace in this latest attempt at making history. After committing an unlikely false start, training partner Chris Brasher, who would win the gold medal in the Steeplechase at the 1956 Olympics, led Bannister through the first 1/4-mile in 57.4, with Bannister right behind in 57.5 and Chris Chataway, who would set his own World Record at 5,000-meters later in the year (13:51.6), a close 3rd.

The order stayed the same through the 1/2-mile (1:58.2), then Chataway moved into the lead with 1-1/2 laps to go, leading through the 3/4-mile split in 3:00.5. Bannister went into the lead on the final backstretch and his race against the clock and a seemingly unbreakable barrier was successful as he crossed the line in 3:59.4.

The shoes worn by Sir Roger Bannister on May 6, 1954 to run his 3:59.4WR, photo courtesy of Bring Back the Mile.

Stadium announcer Norris McWhirter (who, along with his brother, Ross, started the Guiness Book of World Records), who was very aware of the significance of the result, said with typical British restraint (he had rehearsed this the night before), “Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the result of event number 9, the one mile: First, number 41, R.G. Bannister of the Amateur Athletic Association and formerly of Exeter and Merton Colleges, with a time which is a new meeting and track record, and which, subject to ratification, will be a new English Native, British National, British All-Comers, European, British Empire, and World’s record. The time is Three… “ and the rest of the time was lost in the roar of the crowd.

(From the World Athletics’ World Record Progression book:

https://worldathletics.org/news/news/progression-of-world-athletics-records-on-sal)

Bannister passed away on March 3, 2018, at the age of 88.

Oxford to Mark 70^th Anniversary

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1144833/roger-bannister-record-70-anniversary

Original Program For The Meet
NY Times Obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/04/obituaries/roger-bannister-dead.html

BBC Remembers: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/3688913.stm

Newscast Video: http://archive.org/details/RogerBannister

A Look Back(2004):

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/BREAKING-THE-FOUR-MINUTE-MILE-50th-anniversary-2783088.php

Another Look back(2014)

http://tinyurl.com/Bannister2014

Tom Michalik’s site: http://faculty.randolphcollege.edu/tmichalik/4min.htm

Bob Phillips’ Sub-4 Alphabetic Register(through April 14, 2021)

https://trackandfieldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Sub-4-Register-2021.pdf

SI’s first “Sportsman of the Year”:

https://vault.si.com/vault/1955/01/03/1954-its-sportsman-roger-bannister

https://vault.si.com/vault/2011/07/04/sir-rogers-run

Bio: http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ban0bio-1

Bannister Suffering From Parkinson’s (2014)

http://tinyurl.com/BannisterParkinsons

ESPN’s movie “Four Minutes”:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0457350/

http://www.amazon.com/Four-Minutes-Jamie-Maclachlan/dp/B000BCKFSE

1960–At the San José All-Comers meet in Sunnyvale, CA, American Records were set in the 5000 by Max Truex (14:03.6) and in the 10,000 by Buddy Edelen (29:58.9).

Truex: http://www.wikirun.com/Max_Truex Edelen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Edelen

http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/23/sports/leonard-edelen-59-a-runner.html

1961—Frank Budd ran 9.3 for 100-yards on his home track at Villanova to join the lengthy list of co-World Record holders in the event. He would break the logjam the following month by running 9.2 at the U.S. Championships in New York.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/sports/frank-budd-once-known-as-worlds-fastest-human-dies-at-74.html

1967–13-year old Canadian Maureen “Moe” Wilton, all 4’-9 ¾” (1.46m) of her, ran 3:15:22 in Toronto to set a Women’s “World Record” in the Marathon. The 2nd woman in the race was running pioneer and author Kathrine Switzer.

https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a29460762/mighty-moe/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_Wilton

https://www.outsideonline.com/h ealth/running/forgotten-marathoner-maureen-mancuso/

1979—Maryland’s Renaldo Nehemiah smashed his own 3-week old World Record in the 110-meter hurdles when he ran

13-flat (13.00) at the Pepsi Inv. at UCLA. Finishing 2^nd in 13.23 was Cuba’s Alejandro Casañas, who held the World Record at 13.21 before Nehemiah ran 13.18 on April 20.

Nehemiah’s 13-flat remained the Collegiate Record for 40 years until Florida’s Grant Holloway ran 12.98 at the 2019 NCAA Championships.

Lorna Griffin threw the Discus 190-6 (58.06) to set her 3^rd American Record of the season. She would set her 4^th AR 6 days later with a throw of 191-2 (58.28) at the Modesto Relays. She would raise the AR an additional 5 times in 1990, ending with a best of 202-5 (63.22).

WR-Progression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_110_metres_hurdles_world_record_progression

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Griffin

Modesto (DT): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idK2pOw9jpI

1979–Senior Jeff Nelson (Burbank,Ca) ran 8:36.3 at the UCLA/Pepsi Inv. to break Craig Virgin’s National H.S. 2-mile Record of 8:40.9 (1973). Nelson’s mark stood until German Fernandez (Riverbank,Ca) ran 8:34.40 in 2008.

1984—Jud Logan threw 244-7 (74.56) in Columbus, Ohio, to set the first of his 10 American Records in the Hammer Throw. He passed away in early 2022 after a long-time stint as the head coach at Ashland University.

1984—East Germany’s Sabine Paetz-John set a World Record of 6867 points (6964 with the current scoring tables) in the Heptathlon in Potsdam,Germany. She was the last woman to hold the WR in the event before Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who upped the standard 4 times during her career (1986-7148, 1986-7158, 1988-7215, 1988-7291).

1990–Scoring in six events, Meredith Rainey led Harvard to its first Heptagonal team title at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. Rainey was 3rd in the 100 (12.32), 2nd in the 200 (24.59), won the 400 (51.56) and 800 (2:07.54), and ran on the runnerup 4×100 and 4×400 relays.

Rainey, who didn’t compete in high school after having achieved success in age-group track, had to “beg” Harvard coach Frank Haggerty to let her join the team. She went on to win two NCAA titles in the 800 (1989-outdoor, 1990-indoor) and was a 2-time Olympian in that event (1992-1996). Her husband, Maryland head coach Andrew Valmon, served in the same capacity for the U.S. men’s team at the 2012 Olympics in London.

https://hepstrack.wordpress.com/alumni/harvard/meredith-rainey-valmon/

2018—28 years to the day after Rainey’s busy day, another Harvard star, Junior Gabby Thomas, put on a show of her own at the Heps, winning 3 individual events and helping the Crimson win the 4×100 and 4×400 relays, the latter with an incredible 49.4 anchor leg!

On Saturday (May 5), Thomas, the 2018 NCAA Indoor Champion (and former Collegiate Record holder) at 200-meters, won the Long Jump with a wind-aided mark of 21-8 ¼ (legal/20-1/2), and won her 100 (11.26) and 200 (22.82) heats.

Thomas began the final day by running the 2^nd leg on the winning 4×100 (45.16). Up next was a win in the 100 (11.27), followed by a meet record of 22.76 in the 200.

And then came the icing on the cake, her anchor leg on the winning 4×400 (3:36.35). Starting with a 30-meter deficit, Thomas went after Columbia’s Akua Obeng-Akrofi (52.3), the 2018 Heps and ECAC Indoor champion in the 400, finally edging in front right before the finish line at the end of her 49.4 carry.

“Down 2.8 seconds—all I was thinking about was catching her,” Thomas said. “I didn’t know how many meters away she was, especially seeing as Penn’s track is configured differently than most, so it was just strategy of catching her and securing the win in the 4×4. That’s all I could think about when I was running.”

Thomas has continued to have success as a professional, winning the bronze medal in the 200 at the 2021 Olympics and silver at the 2023 World Championships, as well as two medals in the 4×100 (’21 OG-silver, ’23 WC-gold). And then came the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where she won 3 gold medals—200, 4×100, 4×400!

While Rainey’s efforts led Harvard to the team title in 1990, the Crimson had to settle for a 2^nd place finish this year behind host Penn (177-114). Princeton won the men’s title over Penn (178-142).

Results: https://www.tfrrs.org/results/56251/Ivy_League_Outdoor_Track_&_Field_Championships/

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/5/9/outdoor-heps-2018/

In The Beginning

Kebba Tolbert, the women’s sprints/jumps coach at Harvard, recruited Thomas out of high school and told FloTrack, “I knew [Gabby] was pretty talented, but I didn’t know exactly how talented because you just don’t know when they first get here,” Tolbert remembered of his first impressions of his protegé. “We had talked in the recruiting process about where I saw her. She was more of a jumper (and) sprinter out of high school. I had coached Blessing Okagbare (at UTEP), who is the only female to win the 100m and long jump and 60m and long jump in Division I at the NCAA championships. I saw her in that vein”.

https://www.flotrack.org/articles/6157934-how-harvard-quietly-created-one-of-the-best-sprinters-in-ncaa-history

1991—Finland’s Seppo Räty threw the “new” javelin 301-9 (91.98) in Shizuoka, Japan, to break Steve Backley’s 10-month old World Record of 298-6 (90.98).

Sergey Bubka jumped 19-11(6.07) to break his own World Outdoor Record in the Pole Vault. Bubka had raised his Indoor Record to 20-1 (6.12) two months earlier, but indoor marks wouldn’t count as “Absolute” records until 1998.

WR Progression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men’s_pole_vault_world_record_progression

WR Progression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men%27s_javelin_throw_world_record_progression

Conversion: http://www.usatf.org/statistics/calculators/markConversions/

2017—A year after winning the Marathon at the Rio Olympics, Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge was the star attraction at Nike’s Breaking2 event in Monza, Italy. While falling short of the goal of becoming the first man to break 2-hours for the marathon, Kipchoge, aided by pacers (including Bernard Lagat) throughout the event, still ran the fastest time ever in the event—2:00:25. He would eventually break the 2-hour barrier when he ran 1:59.41 in 2019.

https://www.flotrack.org/articles/5064882-eliud-kipchoge-runs-20025-at-nikes-breaking2-event

Q&A With Kipchoge & David Bedford: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc00mDtzIJU

2017–Gwendolyn “Gwen” Berry set an American Record of 251-10 (76.77) in the Hammer Throw at the Ole Miss Classic in

Oxford,Mississippi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_Berry

2018—Galen Rupp won the Prague Marathon with a personal best time of 2:06:07. It was a nice turn-around for Rupp, who had dropped out of the wet and windy Boston Marathon the previous month. Only Ryan Hall (2:04:58/Boston) and Khalid Khannouchi (2:05:38/London, 2:05:56/Chicago) have ever run faster among Americans.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2018/05/galen-rupp-runs-20607-smash-pb-win-prague-marathon/

https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a20265160/after-dropping-out-of-boston-galen-rupp-wins-the-prague-marathon/

2023— Josette (Norris) Andrews won the Women’s 5000-Meters at the On Track Fest at Mt.SAC (Walnut,CA) in 14:43.36 to move to #7 on the All-Time U.S. list. Finishing 7^th was North Carolina State’s Katelyn Tuohy, who set a Collegiate Outdoor Record of 15:03.12. (T&F News recognizes Jenny Simpson’s 15:01.70, run indoors on an oversize track in 2009, as the “absolute” CR).

Running in the “B” section of the Men’s 5000-Meters, Connor Burns, a senior at Southern Boone County H.S. (MO), ran 13:37.30 to break the U.S. High School Record of 13:37.91 that was set by Galen Rupp (Jesuit,OR) in 2004. Like Rupp before him, Burns will become an Oregon Duck in the fall.

Yared Nuguse, the American Indoor and Outdoor Record holder in the Mile, moved down in distance, coming from behind to win the Men’s 800 in 1:46.30.

Results: https://finishedresults.trackscoreboard.com/meets/11276/events

https://www.dyestat.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=44531&do=news&news_id=661364

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2023/05/josette-andrews-1443-connor-burns-1337-breaks-high-school-5k-record/

Read Dave Devine’s 2022 feature on Connor Burns.

https://www.runnerspace.com/gprofile.php?mgroup_id=44531&do=news&news_id=645952

Born On This Day*

Grace Stark 24 (2001) 2024 NCAA Champion-100m-Hurdles (Florida)

2022 NCAA Indoor Champion-60m Hurdles/60m-4^th…injured outdoors

6^th in the 60, 2^nd in the 60-Hurdles at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships

5^th in the 100-Hurdles at the 2024 Olympics; 3^rd at the U.S. Trials

Also 5^th in the 60-Hurdles at the 2025 World Indoor Championships