TRACK & FIELD
THE ICONIC MILES
For over 100 years , the mile has been one of the most prestigious events in track athletics , with many memorable races over four laps of the track . Picking just a few of the most iconic mile races is no easy task , but we gave it a shot anyway , and found a few must-see videos of these iconic races . – BY SEAN FALCONER
1954 … BANNISTER BREAKS FOUR MINUTES
With the World Record for the mile having hovered just above four minutes for quite some time , it was widely believed to be impossible for a human to break the four-minute barrier . Then British medical student Roger Bannister took to the Iffley Road track in Oxford , with friends Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway running as pacesetters , and he managed the impossible , clocking 3:59.4 to run the first ever Dream Mile . To date fewer men have run a sub-fourminute mile than have climbed Mount Everest .
1983 … BOIT BLITZES WORLD ’ S FASTEST MILE
In the 1980s street mile racing was popular around the world , leading to some incredibly fast times , but none were faster than Kenyan Mike Boit ’ s incredible 3:27.8 , posted in the steeply downhill Molenberg Mile on Queen Street in Auckland , New Zealand . It remains the fastest mile ever run by a human … but spare a thought for his opponents that day , some of whom ran sub-3:30 miles and still lost !
1999 ... EL GUERROUJ SETS THE WORLD RECORD
Widely considered the greatest middle-distance runner of all time , Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco set World Records for the 1500m , mile and 2000m in the late 1990s that still stand today . He won four World Champs and three World Indoor Champs titles between 1995 and 2003 , but his crowning glory came in 2004 when he became just the second athlete to ‘ double ’ at the Olympics by winning the 1500m and 5000m titles . Another highlight was his mile World Record , when he held off Kenya ’ s Noah Ngeny in a sprint finish to win by just 0.27 seconds in Rome , stopping the clock on 3:43.13 . The Moroccan still holds seven of the 10 fastest times ever in the mile .
1964 … LAMPRECHT RUNS SA ’ S FIRST DREAM MILE
Ten years after Bannister ’ s breakthrough , South Africa became the 16th country to celebrates its own Dream Mile when De Villiers Lamprecht clocked 3:59.7 on the Coetzenberg track in Stellenbosch – and he did it barefoot , the first athlete in the world to manage that feat . Div would go on to run a total of five Dream Miles .
1987 … FOURIE RUNS TWO SUB-FOURS IN AN HOUR
In the early 1980s , South Africa ’ s king of the mile was Johan Fourie , who finished his career with 53 sub-four miles over a period of 15 years ! Sadly , he was prevented from competing on the international stage in his peak years due to South Africa ’ s apartheid policies , but he lit up the local athletics scene with many world class performances . One of the most memorable saw him become the first man ever to run two sub-four miles in one hour , during a meet in Stellenbosch . In his first race he clocked 3:59.4 , then followed with a 3:58.7 less than an hour later . ( The video below show Johan setting one of his four SA Records in the mile .)
- For over 100 years , the mile has been one of the most prestigious events in track athletics , -
2019 … HASSAN FLIES TO A WOMEN ’ S RECORD
The women ’ s mile World Record of 4:12.56 , set by Russia ’ s Svetlana Masterkova in 1996 , had defied all challengers for some 23 years , until Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan decided to tackle the mile at the Monaco leg of the 2019 Diamond League series . The record looked safe after a slowish first two laps , but then Hassan accelerated , leaving the chasing pack far behind as she flew home to a new World Record of 4:12.33 . More recently , she came close to an unprecedented treble at the Tokyo Olympics , taking gold in the 5000m and 10,000m , but having to settle for bronze in the 1500m .
BEAT YOUR MILE PB
Now that you ’ re feeling motivated by all the iconic milers featured here , why not see how fast you can run a mile – and then go out to run it even faster ? Sign up for the Under Armour All Out Mile Challenge this September , and you could win big prizes as you train to beat your best mile time . More info at www . ualloutmile . com .
46 ISSUE 144 AUGUST 2021 / www . modernathlete . co . za