Sir Roger Bannister, the first runner to break the four-minute mile barrier, died Saturday in Oxford, England at the age of 88.
Bannister first broke the record back in 1954. A few months later he repeated the sub-four-minute performance at the British Empire Games in Vancouver, narrowly beating Australian John Landy. The race, dubbed the Miracle Mile, was an international sensation and considered one of the most memorable moments in Vancouver sports history.
LISTEN: BC Sports Hall of Fame curator Jason Beck on Sir Roger Bannister and the ‘Miracle Mile’
Bannister clocked 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds over four laps at Oxford’s Iffley Road track on May 6, 1954, to break the four-minute mile, a feat many at the time considered impossible. The record stood for just 46 days, as Landy ran 3:57.9 in Turku, Finland, on June 21, 1954.
WATCH: Miracle Mile statue unveiled at Hastings Park
That set the stage for the showdown between Bannister and Landy in front of a crowd of more than 30,000 at Empire Stadium on Aug. 9, 1954. Tens of millions around the world followed the race on radio and television.
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Landy set a fast pace, leading by as much as 15 yards before Bannister caught up as the bell rang for the final lap.
“Around the last bend, I think the crowd was making so much noise he couldn’t hear whether I was behind, or whether he’d dropped me, and he looked over his left shoulder, and I passed him on his right shoulder,” Bannister said.
Bannister won the race in 3:58.8, with Landy second in 3:59. It was the first time two men had run under four minutes in the same race.
A statue in East Vancouver commemorates the moment when Bannister overtook Landy.
The statue was erected in 1967 at Hastings Park. In 2015, it was relocated to nearby Empire Fields.
The current record for fastest mile — set by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999 — stands at 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds.
WATCH: Sir Roger Bannister’s Legacy in B.C.
— With files from The Associated Press