Fifty years ago, a young English medical student ran four laps around a cinder track at Oxford University on a dank, blustery May evening in front of about 1,000 spectators.
With a late burst of speed, Roger Bannister shattered one of sport's most fabled physical and psychological barriers -- running a mile (1.6km) in under four minutes.
Half a century later, that magic time -- 3:59.4 -- still stands out as one of the defining athletic achievements of the 20th century.
More than 2,000 runners around the globe have since broken the four-minute mark, and the world record is now 16 seconds faster.
The enduring image of Bannister -- head tilted back, eyes closed and mouth agape as he strains across the finishing tape on May 6, 1954 -- is testament to an extreme test of speed and stamina that captured the public's imagination.
"It became a symbol of attempting a challenge in the physical world of something hitherto thought impossible," Bannister, now a 75-year-old grandfather, said at his modest Oxford home, minutes from the Iffley Road track where he made history. "I'd like to see it as a metaphor not only for sport, but for life and seeking challenges."
At 25, Bannister became an international celebrity, right up there with Charles Lindbergh, and he lifted the spirits of a nation still recovering from World War II.
In 1953, after Edmund Hillary scaled Mount Everest and Queen Elizabeth II was crowned, Bannister felt inspired to make his own mark by attacking the four-minute mile.
The big question was: Who would get there first? Bannister or one of his two great rivals, Australia's John Landy or America's Wes Santee?
Bannister picked the first match race of the season -- Oxford v the Amateur Athletic Union at Iffley Road on May 6 -- to go for the record.
The morning of the race, he filed his spikes on a grindstone in his hospital lab, and rubbed graphite into the spikes so the track's cinder ash wouldn't stick.
The weather was miserable -- rainy, cool and windy. Bannister nearly wrote off the attempt when he arrived at the track to see a white-and-red English flag atop a nearby church tower whipping in near gale force winds.
But, a few minutes after 6pm, the flag fluttered gently.
"I calculated there's a 50-50 chance of my doing it," Bannister recalled. "I said, `If there's a 50-50 chance and I don't take it, I may never get another chance to beat Landy to it.' So I said, `Let's do it.'"
Brasher took them through the half-mile in 1:58, then Chataway moved to the front on a time of 3:00.5. Bannister would have to run the last lap in 59 seconds.
With 250 yards to go, he surged past Chataway, his lungs gasping for oxygen.
"The world seemed to stand still, or did not exist," he wrote in his book The First Four Minutes.
"The only reality was the next 200 yards [80m] of track under my feet. The tape meant finality -- extinction perhaps.
After breaking the tape, Bannister slumped into the arms of a friend, barely conscious.
As soon as McWhirter read out the first number, he was drowned out by the cheering crowd. "I can assure you the 59.4 wasn't heard," McWhirter said. "It just was the 3 they were worried about."
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