Greatest Rivalries: Landy v/s Bannister [1954]
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This week, we take you back in time, all the way back to 1954, a year which saw the distance of one mile run in under four minutes for the first time ever in history.
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Sir Roger Bannister was the first athlete to break the four-minute-mile. He was a trailblazer who made the impossible, possible, and inspired generations of fans to take up running as a sport.
His story and legacy, is closely linked with an Australian rival, John Landy, who was the second man to run the mile in under four minutes.
This is their story.
Sir Roger Bannister (left) and John Landy at the Iffley Road running track in Oxford on 6th May, 2004, to mark the 50th Anniversary of Bannister’s four-minute mile (Photograph: Jamie McDonald / Getty Images)
The Record
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister (1929–2018) was a British middle-distance athlete and neurologist who ran the first sub-four minute mile, on 6th May, 1954 at the Iffley Road Track in Oxford.
He had considered retirement after the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, having finished fourth in the 1,500m race, but reconsidered and instead took on the four-minute-mile.
The previous record for the distance, 4:01.4, tantalizingly close to the round figure of four minutes, had stood for nine years, including the Second World War, which had slowed athletic activities.
As the announcer on that momentous day of 6th May dragged out his statement to tease the raucous crowd of 3,000, and declared, “The time was three...”, their cheers drowned out the rest of his sentence, “…three minutes and fifty-nine point four seconds!”
"It stood there as something that was waiting to be done, and I was in the right place at the right time and was ready to do it. My attitude was that it can be done, and it will be done soon, and I'd rather it were done here."
Sir Roger Bannister attained this record with minimal training, while also practicing as a junior doctor. His record lasted just 46 days.
—
The Rival
John Michael Landy is an Australian retired middle-distance runner, who in the 1950’s held the World Records for both, the 1,500 metre as well as the mile distance.
He was the 2nd man to run under the four-minute mile barrier, at the Mile Race in Finland in 1954, jut 46 days after Sir Roger’s feat.
With a time of 3:57.9, he improved on the previous mark by over a second, and effectively set the stage for their head-to-head showdown later in the year.
—
The Miracle Mile
The build-up to The Mile Race at the 1954 British Empire Games (as the Commonwealth Games were known back then) in Vancouver, was akin to that of a Heavyweight World Boxing Championship than a running race.
Sir Roger Bannister had broken the four-minute mile at Oxford in May, and in the following month itself, John Landy smashed this record, with a 3:57.9 mile in Finland.
They would finally be on the same track in Vancouver, and face-off in a direct duel for Gold as well as the World Record.
They dealt with the media focus in different ways.
Bannister, more private and reserved, avoided attention and prepared quietly, away from the limelight. Landy though, was happy to talk to the media, and train in public.
The two runners were just as different on the track.
Landy was happy to lead races right from the gun, setting a fast pace that normally drained his rivals of energy and speed at the finish.
Bannister, on the other hand, had the ability to sprint hard at the end of races and sweep past his opponents.
—
The opening heat had its fair share of hiccups. Sir Roger picked up a cold which left him coughing and sneezing. Landy suffered a badly gashed foot that required stitches, having stepped on a photographer's flash bulb.
In the finale, before a crowd 35,000 strong, Landy, as he liked doing, took off at the front from the start. He had a gap of five yards with Bannister in second place.
He continued at a tremendous pace, and at one point extended his lead to nearly 15 yards, before Bannister starting pulling him back.
"This was the moment when my confidence wavered”, Bannister wrote later in this autobiography, ‘The First Four Minutes’.
Bannister knew he had to close the gap.
"I quickened my stride, trying at the same time to keep relaxed", he wrote in ‘The First Four Minutes’. "I was almost hypnotized by his easy shuffling stride. I tried to imagine myself attached to him by some invisible cord. With each stride I drew the cord tighter and reduced his lead."
Landy maintained his pace, running the third lap in 60.2 seconds, but Bannister clocked 59.3, and was gaining ground.
Landy reached the bell (rung before the last lap of a track race) at 2:58.4, with Bannister 0.6th of a second behind. Landy accelerated again though, and the gap began to stretch once more.
"As we entered the last bend, I tried to convince myself that he was tiring." Bannister wrote in The First Four Minutes.
England's Roger Bannister (left) passes John Landy on the outside during the final lap of the mile at the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver, as Landy looks over his other shoulder (Photograph: Getty Images)
On the last bend, Landy had a look to see if he had done enough to hold Bannister at bay. He glanced inside to look behind - at the same moment that Bannister came past him on the outside.
"I saw him glance inwards over his opposite shoulder", Bannister wrote in ‘The First Four Minutes’. " This tiny act of his held great significance and gave me confidence."
Landy's resistance was broken and Bannister sprinted into the lead, and across the line to win in 3:58.8. Landy was 0.8 seconds behind him.
It was the first time two runners had broken four minutes for the mile in the same race.
— Their rivalry was definitely the stuff of legends. —
What We’re Watching
Watch the race unfold in “Bannister’s Miracle Mile” via British Pathe on Youtube
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