LONDON—Roger Bannister, the first runner to break the 4-minute barrier in the mile, has died. “It’s amazing that more people have climbed Mount Everest than have broken the 4-minute mile,” Bannister said in an interview with The Associated Press in 2012. Read more: Roger Bannister’s 4-minute mile shoes sell for $540,000 Swedish runner Gundar Haegg’s mile time of 4:01.4 had stood for nine years, but in 1954 Bannister, Australian rival John Landy and others were threatening to break it. Bannister considered that victory even more satisfying than the first 4-minute mile because it came in a competitive race against his greatest rival. Bannister outlived his 4-minute mile pacemakers: Brasher, who founded the London Marathon, died in 2003 at the age of 74.

Source: thestar March 04, 2018 13:30 UTC