Sixty years ago Thursday, Vancouver was the focus of the world.
Creating the buzz? Two runners, one from England, one from Australia.
On Aug. 7, 1954, at old Empire Stadium, Roger Bannister – the Englishman – took on John Landy – the Aussie – and a field of others in the mile race at the British Empire (now Commonwealth) Games.
The two men had made names for themselves by becoming the first to break the distance’s four-minute barrier, long thought impossible to accomplish.
The first recorded time for a race a mile in length was recorded in London in July, 1855, a clocking of four minutes, 28 seconds by Englishman Charles Westhall.
Between then and July 1945, there were 45 different world record marks for the mile, with Sweden’s Gunder Hagg coming the closest to breaking the elusive four-minute barrier in 1945 in a time of 4:01.4.
Bannister went under four minutes first in May of 1954 at Oxford in a time of 3:59.4.
Landy shattered the mark 46 days later, in Turku, Finland, in a time of 3:58.
Their meeting in Vancouver – another 46 days later – would be the first time Bannister and Landy raced each other.
A crowd of 35,000 crammed into Empire Stadium. Millions listened to the race around the world on radio. Millions more watched on TV. Renowned magazines Life, Time and Sports Illustrated were on hand to capture this historic mile.
Landy was the favourite and he jumped out to an early lead, but Bannister kept within striking distance.
On the last lap, well, you probably know what happens because Vancouver Sun photographer Charlie Warner clicked arguably one of the most famous sports photographs of the 20th Century that afternoon.
Warner had the foresight to leave the throng of photographers gathered at the finish line and moved up the track to near the final corner. He caught the exact moment Landy looked over his left shoulder to see where Bannister was, which happened to be passing him on his right shoulder.
Bannister won the gold medal in a time of 3:58.4 – slower than Landy’s world record mark. Landy crossed the line in second but in a time of 3:59.6.
It was the first time two runners had broken the four-minute mile in the same race.
Landy’s world record of 3:58 stood for slightly more than three years, bested in July 1957 by Englishman Derek Ibbotson in Dublin in a time of 3:57.2.
Since then, 11 runners have set 16 new world marks for the mile distance, the last and current record holder being Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999, who ran the mile in 3:43.1.
If running were my life – and I just about kept a straight face typing that – the mile would be the equivalent of running four laps at the Polson Park oval.
To put what Bannister, Landy, El Guerrouj and every other record holder did into a bit of perspective, it took me three minutes and 43 seconds to walk a normal pace from the front of The Morning Star to McDonald’s (and, no, I did not pick up anything while I was there).
The runners could probably make it from the paper to Marshall Field in under four minutes.
Maybe it’s just me but I think the allure of the mile race is gone.
If anybody does break El Guerrouj’s mark, I question if I’m the only one who wonders when they’re going to pee in the bottle to see if the mark is legit.
But 60 years ago, it was different. It was the Miracle Mile.
And for nearly four minutes, the world stood still while two men ran into the history books.
