Sir Roger Bannister: First person to run a mile in under four minutes dies at 88

[shenmue]

From the article:

Sir Roger Bannister, the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, has died at the age of 88.

His time of three minutes 59.4 seconds, set at Iffley Road sports ground in Oxford on 6 May 1954, stood as a record for just 46 days but his place in athletics history was assured.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/43273249

[tonyt53]

1. He did something most thought impossible. But he couldn't outrun death.

[benld74]

2. Just saw this on Deadspin

One of the sports novels I read as a kid

[ProfessorGAC]

3. And All These Years Later (64). . .

. . .the record is only 16 seconds faster. That's kind of amazing when compared to some other track events.

For the mile, the record is only 6.67% faster after 64 years. In roughly the same amount of time, the high jump record has gone from just under 84" to nearly 97". That's 15.5%. The long jump has gone up by 10%.

Only the 100 meters is in this class, at only 7% faster than in the mid-50's.

Pretty amazing.