3:59:4: The Quest to Break the Four-Minute Mile
by John Bryant
Hutchinson, £14.99, pp. 310, ISBN 0091800331
Fifty years ago, on 6 May 1954, it was a blustery evening in Oxford. On the Iffley Road cinder track an event took place which has since become synonymous with everything that was good about sport.
To run a mile in under four minutes had been seen by many as a feat beyond the limits of human endeavour. But Roger Bannister did so that night in front of a crowd of 1,200. His photograph appeared on the front page of newspapers all over the world and he became a British hero for the rest of his life. Yet he earned nothing, and the next day was back working at St Mary’s Medical School, London.
Neal Bascomb’s The Perfect Mile and John Bryant’s 3:59:4 take us back to the days in athletics when running was not just about winning but about the ‘nobility of the pursuit’.
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