Roger Bannister: Everest on the Track


Roger Bannister: Everest on the Track

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Transcript


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'Good evening and welcome to the Iffley Road Athletic Ground, Oxford,

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'for the OUAC vs Amateur Athletic Association match...'

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The four minutes itself, you know, there was this huge history.

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The lure of the mile still exists.

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If I'd had a choice about one world record to break,

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it would've been the mile.

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The mile has always been the blue ribboned event.

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It had a place in British hearts and always has done.

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People could easily understand that, if you're running four minutes, you

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were going to have to be running somewhere around 60 seconds a lap.

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It's about the right amount of time for drama to unfold.

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'First call for the one mile run.

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'All athletes please check in with the clerk.'

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The sub-four minute mile certainly always establishes you as a runner.

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I remember as a kid running behind a car at 15mph,

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so I could actually understand what it meant.

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You need the luck, you need good weather,

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just perfectly timed training.

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If I'd broken a four-minute mile, that would have meant as much to me,

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almost, as breaking the world record did in the 10,000 metres.

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'This is the second call for the one mile run.

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'Please could all athletes check in with the clerk.'

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I grew up just before people were breaking four minutes for a mile.

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You could not have been brought up in my generation of track and field

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without having Roger as a massive influence.

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Bannister was probably my first really big hero.

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You knew there was a heritage to particularly the mile,

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if nothing else that, you wanted to belong to.

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It is the tradition, for me.

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It is the fact that it was Bannister.

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'This is the final call for the one mile.

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'Can athletes please make their way to the start?'

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Even beyond track and field athletes, it's a benchmark that

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people still understand as something that is absolutely momentous.

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'In lane one, representing Oxford University Athletic Club, Yale and

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'University College, GF Dole.'

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This one span of about a year,

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we had Everest climbed and the Queen crowned.

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'Representing the Amateur Athletic Association, CG Chataway.'

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They were looking for another huge achievement

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and so the four-minute mile

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was rapidly compared to Everest.

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'In lane two, representing the

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'Amateur Athletic Association, CW Brasher.'

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I've never experienced an event of that tremendous excitement.

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He came off a wartime diet,

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he did it on a track that was

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costing him probably about a second and a half a lap.

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'In lane three, representing Oxford

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'University Athletic Club and Magdalen College, AD Gordon.'

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It was a magical barrier.

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As many people have commented, it is

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sort of the Everest of track and field.

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There was this question of, can we even go there?

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Most of the commentators told him he couldn't possibly do it.

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There's probably nothing more challenging than somebody telling you you can't do it.

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I don't think it was just about track and field. It was about exploration.

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Anybody trying to run under four minutes for the mile might actually

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endanger their lives.

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The four minutes mile was an achievement on behalf of humanity.

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'In lane four, representing the Amateur Athletic Association, RG Bannister.'

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Roger Bannister is the best example of doing something when your brain says no.

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'Runners, to your marks.'

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But your heart says, yes, you can.

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'This country is at war with Germany.'

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I can remember I was sailing my boat

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at the local recreation ground pond,

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when I heard the first air raid siren

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and I remember having had a slightly guilty thought - "Life is very dull.

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"What would happen if there were a war?"

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'More searchlights come into action.

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'You see them reach straight up into the sky and occasionally they catch

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'the cloud and seem to splash on the bottom of it.

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'Just a few people here walking rather hurriedly towards the air raid shelters...'

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When I heard this air raid siren, I didn't know whether bombs would

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start dropping immediately, so I tucked my sailing boat under my arm,

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sprinted back home as soon as I could.

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-WINSTON CHURCHILL:

-The Battle of Britain is about to begin.

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Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty.

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So bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its

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Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say,

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"This was their finest hour."

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My father was in the Admiralty and so this whole section of government

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was moved to Bath, away from the city of London,

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because the Blitz was catching any buildings and public places.

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-NEWSREADER:

-I'm standing on top of a very tall building.

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The whole of the skyline to the south is lit up with a ruddy glow.

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Almost like a sunrise or a sunset.

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For two nights, the city of Bath was very, very badly damaged

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and the house we lived in, the atrium above the stairway fell in

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and the blast blew out all the windows.

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-NEWSREADER:

-German aircraft carried out a number of attacks

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on Great Britain last night.

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Enemy aircraft have been reported over towns on the south coast,

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the west of England, as well as over the London area.

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I remember having a discussion with my parents as to whether we should

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stay to have a potentially third night of this attack.

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We eventually decided to take

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food and blankets and walk to Limpley Stoke,

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where there was a great forest.

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And so we spent the night camping out.

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I was directed to a comprehensive school called Beechen Cliff School.

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I lived on one side of the city, which was called Landsdown,

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and I had to get to a hill on the other side of town.

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I had about 2-3 miles and so, with my satchel, I would walk or

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half run down Landsdown Hill,

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through the city with the Roman baths and the Assembly Rooms and

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then, just before the school, there was a Beechen Cliff and a very,

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very steep pathway with large steps and I used to run up this.

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And so that was really my training.

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I won the cross-country there when I was 11, 12, 13.

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I expected to be given the cup.

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Someone had said, if you win a cup three times, then it's given to you.

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This was a massive cup, absolutely beautiful cup.

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And the staff heard that I'd expected to be given it as I had won it three times, a record time,

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and they then gave me a replica, which was about so high.

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That was my earliest trophy and therefore my most treasured trophy.

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I did have a capacity to run and enjoyed running.

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I think there's a part of me that was a loner.

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I had a bicycle when I was about 13 and would ride

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from Bath to London to visit my friends,

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which is about 110 miles or something.

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That was a sort of physical achievement which probably not many

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people of my age would have done.

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Or perhaps indeed their parents wouldn't have allowed them to do it.

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'This is London calling. Here is a newsflash.

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WINSTON CHURCHILL: 'Yesterday morning at 2:41,

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'General Jodl signed the act of unconditional surrender

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'to the Allied Expeditionary Force.'

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CHURCH BELLS RING

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At the end of the war, as a kind of celebration of the war being over,

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there was an athletics meeting held at the White City Stadium.

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And in the mile, there was Sydney Wooderson and Arne Andersson.

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We only just got into the ground

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because somebody pushed over a fence.

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There was such a yearning to see sport again.

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Just on the last bend, Sydney Wooderson came up to challenge

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Arne Andersson. It just looked for a moment as whether Sidney Wooderson

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might do it. But then Andersson strode away from him.

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So there I was, I was seeing two world record holders

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and I found that most inspiring.

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Someone said, possibly Wellington, that the next worst thing...

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..to losing a war was winning a war.

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If you think about the victory, the very long war,

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a lot of war weariness,

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the anticipation is presumably

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that there will be some light at the end of the tunnel.

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You've got to remember the incredible levels of privation

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that the UK goes through with rationing in the war.

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And then people are very, very hungry and very, very cold.

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Right up to the early 1950s.

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Bread rationing was introduced for the first time in 1946.

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It hadn't been rationed during the war.

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So that gives an indication, doesn't it, that the wartime shortages and

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the sense that people must have had that, once the war was over,

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things would go back to normal, and everything would get much better.

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There's actually quite a big time lag before that starts to happen.

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When I arrived at Oxford in the fall of '52, er...

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eggs, butter, sugar were still rationed.

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There were still shortages.

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When I moved from the college after the first semester,

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one of the first things my landlady asked me was,

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"What day would you like your egg?"

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One egg a week.

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I would describe it as having endured.

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They'd done the right thing. They're pleased they've done the right thing.

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They've been vindicated in doing the right thing.

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There begins to be a creeping awareness, I think, of loss of power and status.

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All these things made the country

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feel that the past glories of Empire were lost and gone for ever.

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I wasn't really an athlete.

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All I was concerned with was getting the exams for Oxford.

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Oxford had changed a lot from before the war.

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It was much less luxurious in the way it treated undergraduates.

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But it was still really very old-fashioned.

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Throughout the war, students had managed to take

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the entrance exam for Oxford and passed it.

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But they were immediately then conscripted into the Army.

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So there were whole cadres of students

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who had gone through the war and came back aged 23, 24,

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and there was one person who'd been an acting brigadier!

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All of these ex-servicemen will have produced much more interesting

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tutorials all round and a much more serious sense of purpose.

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I was 17 at the time.

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And the difference in experience that they'd had of the world,

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loss of life,

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was something which I just wasn't even capable of understanding.

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You had these people who come back and they are...

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They've achieved a huge amount...

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and they've been pushed into positions of responsibility very, very early.

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I felt that we had to do something to try to match.

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Although we couldn't be in the war, something, perhaps sporting,

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which would have a significance.

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Bannister may have felt that he needed to prove himself in a world

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dominated by older, returning servicemen.

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Perhaps it is the case that warfare leaves people

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with the feeling that what they're doing after it isn't really very

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significant, and pushes them further.

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I think different people would have taken that in different ways.

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Some people took it and it turned them into Marxist rebels.

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Some people took it and it turned them into nothing more than chartered accountants.

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When Sir Roger entered Oxford in 1946, he was sort of,

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really, an average runner by all accounts.

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I wanted to be a runner.

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I remember running on this Exeter College grass with somebody who was

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an oarsman and the groundsman said,

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"I remember Jack Lovelock," who was at Exeter College.

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"He had such a neat style.

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"I don't think you'll make a runner," he said to me!

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My first race was in the freshman's sports in the December of 1946

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and I came second and I did a time of 4.52.

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Roger, as a medical student, was a conscientious student.

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Like most medical students, really had to do a pretty full day.

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And the training that I did was usually on my own,

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because I couldn't take the afternoons off.

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I think Oxford is a place, whether you're talking about

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the university or just the Rhodes Scholarship Programme

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that is known for the ideal of sound body and sound mind.

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I think Sir Roger really epitomises that.

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I would run as hard as I could rather than, erm,

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doing a great deal of longer work, which didn't seem to me to have

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a relevance to releasing everything that I possessed.

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In the Oxford and Cambridge Sports that year,

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there was a great deal of snow and ice,

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so they didn't hold proper trials,

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but there were the two who'd run in the mile the previous year and they

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said, "Well, we've seen this chap Bannister around and he's been

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"awfully good at shovelling the ice and the snow,

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"to try to get the third of a mile track clear.

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"Let's put him in as third string."

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I think it's pretty clear that Sir Roger had the innate biological or

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genetic make up to do what he did.

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So I said, "Well, what do I do as third string?"

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They said, "Well, you keep at the back, and don't worry."

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And beyond that, one thing that we know now is that really maybe the

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more important kind of talent

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in endurance running is how rapidly you respond to a training stimulus.

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I got to the last lap of the mile

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at the White City Stadium.

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And suddenly, I felt, well, I can accelerate.

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And so, I accelerated round the rest of the field,

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so that was really the start.

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His progression was sort of stunning.

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He went from being a decent freshman miler

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to being a national calibre runner

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and, in short order after that, to be an international calibre runner.

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I think that there's something in my family background.

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My father had ambition and he had ability.

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But it wasn't really possible for him

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to move into anything more important.

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I think a single-mindedness was the consequence of feeling,

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well, he hasn't been able to achieve this, but perhaps I might.

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I decided not to run in the '48 Games, er...

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in order to improve my chances to run in the '52 Games in Helsinki.

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Before the 1952 Olympics,

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I had paced Roger in a time trial over 1,200 metres.

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I was predicted to be the favourite

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by others as well as Harold Abrahams.

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He did, I think, 2 minutes 52.

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Which was far quicker than anybody had done it before.

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The press got very, very uptight about our prospects in athletics.

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I remember they named about five or six athletes,

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all expected to win a gold medal.

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And of course, Bannister was expected to win one.

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But for the last-minute insertion of

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an extra round in the '52 Olympics, he would certainly have won.

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STARTER'S PISTOL

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They had three races on three successive days.

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I had not prepared for that.

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My fault, but there was nothing I could do about it.

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I got to the shoulders of the field in the final.

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I gave the instruction to my legs to run faster,

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which had always hitherto worked, and there was just nothing there.

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He was clearly disappointed to finish out of the medals.

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I was so desperately upset when he didn't win.

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Had he won the gold medal in Helsinki, he would have retired right on the spot.

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It was a shattering experience.

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The King had been ill for a while.

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And he saw off Princess Elizabeth and the young Philip on a very

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successful journey to many different parts of the Empire.

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And the king gets iller and iller in London, so she is in Kenya,

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when suddenly she is told of the death of her father.

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She flies home and immediately assumes the burdens of state.

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'In a welcome of bells, the Queen arrives at Westminster.'

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The coronation was a great event.

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What I did for the coronation was to take a sleeping bag and go sleep

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on the pavement in London, and watch the procession go by.

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The morning of the coronation,

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the news of the conquest of Everest arrived with such amazing timing.

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You had this beautiful young Queen, it was a wonderful pageant.

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Somewhere up the line, the sound was getting louder.

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You could almost trace the Queen's progress

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by how close that sound was coming.

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I got a fairly distant view of the Queen.

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I got a very close-up view of a beaming Winston Churchill and I was

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blown away by the view of the groomed horses.

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The coronation was partly a ceremony, pomp, glory, heritage occasion.

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But it was also given modernity,

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because of the Queen's youthfulness and glamour.

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And then there was also the youthfulness of the man who'd conquered Everest.

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We did have a little radio at base camp and someone tuned in to

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the BBC in London, and the BBC announcer was just

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describing the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

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And then he broke in to the Coronation...

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-RADIO CRACKLES:

-'I'm able to announce that the New Zealander, Hillary,

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'has succeeded in conquering Mount Everest.'

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And then, almost for the first time, I felt, "My God, we've climbed this,

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"and we've had authoritative support from the BBC in London.

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"We've done it!"

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We were absolutely amazed that the news of the climbing on Everest came

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on the morning of the Coronation.

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It was looked upon as a good omen.

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And a gift to the Queen.

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Think of the way in which a little bit of colour and glamour is coming

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back into British life. Rationing is ending.

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And then the Queen comes into this as an intensely glamorous figure.

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The Coronation, Everest,

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they contributed to this sense that there was a lot of confidence in the

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idea that Britain was now moving forward.

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Suddenly, things feel a whole lot better.

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It was the grey grimness of the war

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and the post-war era that was coming to an end.

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It's a different world.

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And it's a much better world.

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We really didn't know whether it was

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humanly possible to reach the top of Mount Everest.

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I was very interested in the problems of climbing.

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The Everest problem was a physiological problem.

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At an altitude of 29,000 feet,

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the question was whether that was the physiological barrier.

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One had this feeling in your mind all the time,

0:23:270:23:30

that maybe you were just pushing things

0:23:300:23:33

a bit beyond what humans were meant to do.

0:23:330:23:37

And you couldn't ignore that feeling.

0:23:370:23:40

I was extremely well aware of what was happening and very hopeful that

0:23:400:23:45

they would succeed.

0:23:450:23:46

In a way, the two things were linked.

0:23:480:23:52

The triumph of Everest and possibly the triumph of the four-minute mile.

0:23:520:23:58

Sir Roger is very devoted to Britain and British tradition.

0:23:580:24:02

He saw it on this continuum of

0:24:020:24:03

achievements with Sir Edmund Hillary's summiting of Mount Everest

0:24:030:24:08

as something that would rebuild the psyche of

0:24:080:24:10

Great Britain after World War II.

0:24:100:24:13

I did find a great inspiration from the climbing of Everest.

0:24:150:24:19

The anticipation for what Sir Roger did was seeing other great runners

0:24:190:24:23

sort of inch up to that barrier and fail, and fail, and fail, and fail.

0:24:230:24:27

As if there really was some magical wall there.

0:24:270:24:30

I thought, well, this is something

0:24:300:24:32

which was hitherto not thought possible.

0:24:320:24:35

It's a question of, "Is this even possible?

0:24:350:24:37

"Who's going to maybe break through this barrier?"

0:24:370:24:39

They've done it. There is something comparable about the four-minute mile.

0:24:390:24:44

I had a plan to retire.

0:24:560:24:58

Hopefully having won the gold medal.

0:25:000:25:03

And I felt that I had not done myself justice.

0:25:030:25:08

I came back home,

0:25:080:25:10

had a bit of a holiday

0:25:100:25:11

and then I started training much more seriously.

0:25:110:25:15

Roger had really, for two years, nearly two years,

0:25:150:25:19

had this as his principal objective.

0:25:190:25:21

He said to me, "Would you pace me

0:25:210:25:23

"in an attempt to do the first mile inside four minutes?"

0:25:230:25:27

The fact that so many people had been attempting it for so long

0:25:270:25:33

and had got so close, the Swedes during the war,

0:25:330:25:37

yet hadn't managed to achieve it,

0:25:370:25:39

made people feel that there was a barrier of some kind.

0:25:390:25:44

Psychologically, I thought, but some thought physiological.

0:25:440:25:48

As the Swedish runners have chipped away at the record and brought it

0:25:480:25:51

down and brought it down and brought it down, once they got to 4.01,

0:25:510:25:54

they really stalled right there.

0:25:540:25:56

Just at the precipice of making history.

0:25:560:25:59

The Swedes had the great runners Andersson and Hagg.

0:25:590:26:02

They ran miles

0:26:020:26:04

in 1944 and 1945 and, when the war ended, things weren't

0:26:040:26:08

very good in Europe, and things took a long time to catch up.

0:26:080:26:12

For nine years, almost a decade,

0:26:120:26:14

it was stuck and so I think that just made the quest to break through

0:26:140:26:17

that sort of invisible barrier feel that much more real,

0:26:170:26:20

and that much more intense.

0:26:200:26:22

People understood what the mile was.

0:26:220:26:24

It was made up of four equal laps.

0:26:240:26:26

They could understand that stage

0:26:260:26:28

and the four minutes that popped up in front of the world.

0:26:280:26:31

I think that really sort of injected some intensity

0:26:310:26:34

into the drama of the chase, because here,

0:26:340:26:37

you have people approaching this,

0:26:370:26:39

and sort of a segment of the media wondering if it's even possible.

0:26:390:26:42

I was working in London and so was Chris Brasher.

0:26:470:26:50

And Roger was working very hard at St Mary's Hospital.

0:26:500:26:55

By then, we'd formed a team with Franz Stampfl the coach.

0:26:550:27:00

He said, "I can turn you into a champion."

0:27:000:27:05

Franz Stampfl coached Chris Brasher first

0:27:050:27:08

and then...Chris Chataway joined and we gradually formed

0:27:080:27:15

this tight group of the four of us.

0:27:150:27:19

Franz Stampfl,

0:27:190:27:20

one of my regrets is that so little attention is paid to him.

0:27:200:27:24

Because I think he's a major factor in the whole story.

0:27:240:27:27

A very warm and supportive person.

0:27:270:27:31

We fell into a pattern of meeting him twice a week at the Kings Road track.

0:27:330:27:39

He was never in the conventional coaching mode of saying pick up

0:27:390:27:43

the left foot a bit less, or whatever.

0:27:430:27:46

It was all inspiration.

0:27:460:27:48

He was very, very good at that.

0:27:490:27:51

He really helped you believe that you could do better than you thought you could.

0:27:510:27:56

We did, principally, interval training,

0:27:560:27:59

10 x 400 metres and that kind of thing.

0:27:590:28:02

And then we would have supper at a restaurant.

0:28:020:28:05

And by the time you had listened to Franz,

0:28:050:28:07

and Franz never stopped talking,

0:28:070:28:09

and by the time you had listened to Franz for an hour, over supper,

0:28:090:28:13

you were absolutely convinced that the only thing in the world

0:28:130:28:17

that was worth doing was to get a superb world record.

0:28:170:28:21

So, 1953, he sort of assembles.

0:28:210:28:23

He takes a scientific approach of kind of assembling a team around him, with Chataway and Brasher.

0:28:230:28:28

As the weeks went by, aims for each lap and so on,

0:28:280:28:33

and tactics were focused.

0:28:330:28:36

It became not just a joint effort,

0:28:360:28:40

but an effort that we were all three tremendously committed to.

0:28:400:28:46

Twice in 1953,

0:28:460:28:48

he sets out with his pacesetters and makes attempts at Oxford,

0:28:480:28:51

but is foiled by the weather.

0:28:510:28:54

We were close friends by then.

0:28:540:28:56

To be in on this great joint venture together was a great thing.

0:28:560:28:59

Sir Roger certainly looks like he's in the driver's seat.

0:29:010:29:03

He made an attempt in 1953,

0:29:030:29:07

which produced a time of 4:02.

0:29:070:29:10

This was his major, major objective,

0:29:110:29:14

to get inside four minutes during 1954

0:29:140:29:17

which he had decided it was going to be his last year.

0:29:170:29:20

And in that time, a couple of other players come on the scene.

0:29:200:29:24

The American, Wes Santee, starts to approach the four-minute barrier.

0:29:250:29:29

And then kind of out of nowhere, the Australian John Landy runs 4:02.

0:29:290:29:33

Because of the situation we had in Australia

0:29:330:29:36

where there was really nobody in 1953

0:29:360:29:39

who could run with me, so I had to really set the pace.

0:29:390:29:43

I think there was an expectation

0:29:430:29:46

that one or another of them was going to do it.

0:29:460:29:49

December of 1953, that's summertime in Australia.

0:29:490:29:52

He's mid-season, essentially,

0:29:520:29:53

while Bannister is stuck in British winter.

0:29:530:29:55

All three of them had run 4:02 exactly.

0:29:550:30:00

Every time one of them raced, that would hit the news,

0:30:000:30:03

and they were getting closer and closer.

0:30:030:30:06

It was anyone's guess who was going to be the first,

0:30:060:30:10

between the three of them.

0:30:100:30:11

John Landy was a good runner and a very strong runner.

0:30:110:30:16

Who could tell that

0:30:160:30:19

Landy wouldn't have got it before he could next have an opportunity?

0:30:190:30:23

When I was running immediately after the war,

0:30:230:30:26

we did have the advantage of not being

0:30:260:30:28

affected greatly by the war and those other countries,

0:30:280:30:31

particularly in Europe, were affected by the war.

0:30:310:30:34

Clearly, we were anxious about what John Landy would do

0:30:340:30:39

and I certainly felt that he would break the four-minute mile.

0:30:390:30:43

Landy might break through.

0:30:430:30:45

Landy might break this, the four-minute mile.

0:30:450:30:47

There's really nothing Bannister can do about it.

0:30:470:30:49

The reason why the four-minute mile

0:30:490:30:52

was run in May of 1954 was simply that

0:30:520:30:56

John Landy was then on his way to Finland...

0:30:560:31:00

Sir Roger sets the date in early 1954,

0:31:000:31:03

when it's sort of now or never.

0:31:030:31:05

..where he had been guaranteed

0:31:050:31:08

pacing and good tracks and good weather,

0:31:080:31:12

that was why it was brought forward to be the first event of the season.

0:31:120:31:17

If he didn't do it in early 1954, it wasn't going to be him.

0:31:170:31:21

We looked at the calendar and what

0:31:210:31:24

was available and there was a match of

0:31:240:31:26

the Amateur Athletic Association against Oxford University.

0:31:260:31:31

We knew the track, Iffley Road, very well.

0:31:310:31:34

And so we decided to go for that.

0:31:340:31:36

In order to be legitimate,

0:31:360:31:39

it had to be within a meeting and it was in a meeting

0:31:390:31:42

between the Amateur Athletic Association and Oxford University,

0:31:420:31:47

and Chris Chataway, Chris Brasher and I were the three in the

0:31:470:31:51

Amateur Athletic Association team.

0:31:510:31:54

He has, sort of, an independent streak about him

0:31:540:31:57

that allowed him to do this. And that manifested in two ways.

0:31:570:32:01

He was surrounded by people, reporters and other people,

0:32:010:32:06

even other runners who were telling him, look,

0:32:060:32:08

this just isn't something that's possible.

0:32:080:32:10

What we were principally aiming at in our training

0:32:100:32:14

was ten laps in 60 seconds with a very easy lap in between.

0:32:140:32:18

And we were having difficulty, a couple of weeks before,

0:32:180:32:20

hitting the correct targets.

0:32:200:32:22

You can get to four flat, you can get to 4:01, the other runners,

0:32:220:32:27

as they inched closer to the four-minute barrier

0:32:270:32:29

sort of hit this wall.

0:32:290:32:30

And when I asked Sir Roger if that ever sort of affected him,

0:32:300:32:34

and he himself wondered if this

0:32:340:32:35

really was a barrier beyond which humans

0:32:350:32:38

could not go and he said, "Absolutely not!

0:32:380:32:41

"I'm a scientist. 4:01 and 3:59 are two seconds apart just like 4:03 and

0:32:410:32:46

"4:01 are two seconds apart." And that was it for him.

0:32:460:32:48

He was very, one would say, scientific about it.

0:32:480:32:53

Much more than the average runner.

0:32:540:32:56

And I think you needed that sort of independent streak

0:32:560:33:00

in order to break the barrier. By the same token,

0:33:000:33:02

I think Sir Roger would have had

0:33:020:33:05

every reason to say, "This isn't what I should be doing right now."

0:33:050:33:09

Chris Brasher and Roger

0:33:090:33:11

had a weekend in Scotland walking

0:33:110:33:16

and they always reckoned that that gave them a shot in the arm.

0:33:160:33:20

He's totally enmeshed in his medical studies.

0:33:200:33:22

He's extremely busy. He's not sleeping enough.

0:33:220:33:25

He has his lunch break to train to break the world record.

0:33:250:33:29

Training for May 6th was going reasonably well.

0:33:290:33:33

But the only doubt on the day was the weather.

0:33:330:33:36

We didn't publicise our intentions at all.

0:33:410:33:43

In fact we were extremely careful not to drop any hints.

0:33:430:33:47

I didn't want to advertise the fact,

0:33:470:33:51

because if the conditions were impossible,

0:33:510:33:55

I would say the attempt is off.

0:33:550:33:58

We told the McWhirters but they were

0:33:580:34:00

journalists and athletic statisticians

0:34:000:34:04

and we knew that they could be trusted.

0:34:040:34:06

This was quite a big athletics event for Oxford.

0:34:060:34:10

Because I knew there would be famous athletes competing.

0:34:100:34:14

I was in that first mile because I

0:34:140:34:17

was at that point Oxford's top miler.

0:34:170:34:21

There was this vague rumour that Bannister was going to attempt a fast time.

0:34:210:34:26

I really went into it almost as half spectator

0:34:260:34:30

and half competitor.

0:34:300:34:32

This was a marquee event, all by itself, this race.

0:34:340:34:41

I was at Guinness in Park Royal.

0:34:410:34:42

I worked in the morning

0:34:420:34:44

and then got in my car and drove to Oxford, late morning.

0:34:440:34:49

I was living in what were called digs.

0:34:490:34:52

A room in somebody's house. A little beyond the Iffley Road track.

0:34:520:34:56

I would have bicycled in.

0:34:560:34:57

Laid my bike against a tree and gone in to change

0:34:580:35:02

and chatted with team-mates.

0:35:020:35:05

Sir Roger went to the hospital that morning.

0:35:050:35:08

He and Brasher and Chataway, those guys went to work that day.

0:35:080:35:12

A group of us from my college,

0:35:120:35:14

St Catherine's College Oxford, decided to go along,

0:35:140:35:19

although curiously two of them, rather laid-back,

0:35:190:35:22

thought it looks as though it's going to rain,

0:35:220:35:25

and so they opted out.

0:35:250:35:26

When I got to Iffley Road, I thought it was all right.

0:35:260:35:29

The flag above the church

0:35:290:35:32

opposite, it was fluttering slightly,

0:35:320:35:36

which was worrying, because wind is

0:35:360:35:41

the biggest enemy, even with Roger having us in front of him.

0:35:410:35:45

I met Franz, not planned, on the train going up to Oxford.

0:35:450:35:50

And by that time it was raining and it was windy.

0:35:500:35:55

And I said, you know, this weather is no good.

0:35:550:35:58

So I was really in a very

0:35:580:36:02

doubtful state of mind.

0:36:020:36:04

And Franz Stampfl, he said, "If you don't take this chance today,

0:36:050:36:12

"then you may never get another chance."

0:36:120:36:16

And in that case, no four-minute mile for Britain.

0:36:160:36:20

He said to me, "You can run a 3:56 mile.

0:36:200:36:25

"That's what I think you can do."

0:36:250:36:26

When Roger got down to the stadium,

0:36:280:36:30

I think it was a little bit after me.

0:36:300:36:34

It was clear that he still had some doubts about the weather.

0:36:340:36:39

There was a flag, a St George's flag,

0:36:390:36:41

flying on the church steeple at the top of the track.

0:36:410:36:45

I used that during the afternoon as a wind gauge.

0:36:450:36:48

-TANNOY:

-First call for the one-mile run,

0:36:480:36:51

all athletes please check in with the clerk.

0:36:510:36:53

Being poverty-stricken students,

0:36:530:36:55

we weren't going to pay to sit in the stand, but we decided we would

0:36:550:37:00

buy a cheaper ticket and just stand just beyond the spectator stand and

0:37:000:37:07

this happened to give us the perfect view of the finishing line.

0:37:070:37:11

It wasn't until half an hour before that I really made up my mind that,

0:37:140:37:20

if I didn't attempt it on this occasion,

0:37:200:37:23

I might never get another attempt before John Landy did it.

0:37:230:37:27

So that was really the final crunch.

0:37:270:37:29

I may say, Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher were getting a bit

0:37:290:37:33

impatient with me.

0:37:330:37:34

They said, "We've come here to do this, well, are we going to do it?"

0:37:340:37:38

-TANNOY:

-This is the second call for the one-mile run.

0:37:380:37:41

Please, could all athletes check in...

0:37:410:37:42

Norris McWhirter did notify the BBC

0:37:420:37:46

that they ought to have a camera there,

0:37:460:37:49

because there might be something interesting in the mile.

0:37:490:37:54

It added, I suppose, to the tension and the excitement of the day,

0:37:540:37:59

looking around at what was quite a full stadium.

0:37:590:38:02

The crowd was of about 1,500, which is a lot, for Oxford.

0:38:020:38:08

Realising that nobody else knew what it was

0:38:080:38:13

that we were going to attempt to do.

0:38:130:38:16

-TANNOY:

-This is the final call for the one-mile.

0:38:160:38:19

Can athletes please make their way to the start?

0:38:190:38:22

I did not see face-to-face any of

0:38:230:38:26

the three, Chataway, Brasher or Bannister,

0:38:260:38:31

until we were gathering at the starting line.

0:38:310:38:34

They were almost enclosed in a bubble.

0:38:340:38:36

They were so focused on what they were doing.

0:38:380:38:41

-TANNOY:

-In lane one, representing Oxford University Athletic Club,

0:38:410:38:45

Yale and University College, GF Dole.

0:38:450:38:49

In lane two, representing the Amateur Athletic Association,

0:38:490:38:53

CW Brasher...

0:38:530:38:54

I got to the starting line

0:38:560:39:00

and Chris Brasher, I was on the pole,

0:39:000:39:04

Chris Brasher was immediately on my right.

0:39:040:39:07

-TANNOY:

-..the Amateur Athletic Association, RG Bannister.

0:39:070:39:12

In lane five, representing the Amateur Athletic Association...

0:39:120:39:16

Relief, as it always is, when, eventually

0:39:170:39:21

the minutes had ebbed away and we were actually there ready to go.

0:39:210:39:25

I was determined not to get boxed in.

0:39:250:39:27

That was as far ahead as I was thinking.

0:39:270:39:30

I saw that the flag on the church steeple

0:39:300:39:33

was not blowing as strongly,

0:39:330:39:35

and I just took that as a sort of final comment by the weather

0:39:350:39:40

that you've got to take a chance.

0:39:400:39:42

Runners, to your marks.

0:39:570:40:00

GUNSHOT

0:40:000:40:01

We had no idea, really, that the attempt was on.

0:40:070:40:10

Brasher had not got far enough ahead to be able to pull in.

0:40:100:40:15

And as we went into the turn,

0:40:160:40:18

I eased off a little bit so that I wouldn't keep him on the outside.

0:40:180:40:22

Chris Brasher, as planned, went straight into the lead

0:40:220:40:27

and Roger did say,

0:40:270:40:30

I forget, I think it must have been about halfway through

0:40:300:40:33

the first lap, you know, "Faster, faster."

0:40:330:40:35

He goes off, very full of running.

0:40:350:40:38

I feel so fresh.

0:40:380:40:40

I haven't done anything for five days before it.

0:40:400:40:43

Which was my usual preparation for a race.

0:40:430:40:46

You feel so eager, so I say, "Faster, faster."

0:40:460:40:50

Chris, and this was his huge contribution to the occasion,

0:40:500:40:53

took no notice and

0:40:530:40:55

went on at the pace that he was setting which was actually correct.

0:40:550:40:59

I had some fantasies of being able

0:40:590:41:02

to stay with them for a reasonable time

0:41:020:41:06

but after about a quarter of a mile I knew that this was something,

0:41:060:41:10

I can't keep this up.

0:41:100:41:12

So he took no notice, and we came through the quarter mile in 58

0:41:120:41:17

which was absolutely right.

0:41:170:41:19

By the time they got to

0:41:190:41:21

the end of the first quarter, I would have been, say,

0:41:210:41:24

ten yards or more back.

0:41:240:41:26

-TANNOY:

-57.7 seconds, 440 yards.

0:41:260:41:31

57.7, I think.

0:41:310:41:33

And Norman Barrett and I, my friend

0:41:330:41:36

who was with me, looked at each other.

0:41:360:41:39

"Very fast!"

0:41:390:41:40

Chris was still on schedule at about

0:41:400:41:43

a couple of minutes for the two laps.

0:41:430:41:45

I was very definitely watching it all.

0:41:450:41:47

By the end of the second lap, he was still going as planned.

0:41:470:41:51

The half-mile was announced at 1:58.3.

0:41:510:41:55

And there were gasps from the spectators.

0:41:570:42:01

I mean, this is serious running.

0:42:010:42:03

-TANNOY:

-The half mile, 1:58.3.

0:42:030:42:08

I was surprised when Brasher kept the lead after

0:42:080:42:15

the end of the half.

0:42:150:42:17

It was planned that he would go to 2.5

0:42:170:42:20

laps and I would get as close to 3.5 as I could.

0:42:200:42:25

Brasher kept on for another 220 yards

0:42:280:42:31

and Chataway took over on the middle of the back stretch.

0:42:310:42:34

He was staying around the bend on the third lap,

0:42:340:42:37

so I overtook him at the beginning of the back straight.

0:42:370:42:41

If you watch the film, you see that Brasher,

0:42:410:42:43

at that point, really slowed down.

0:42:430:42:47

I ran the third lap with no problem.

0:42:470:42:49

I was concentrating hard, not to let the pace slip at all.

0:42:490:42:54

At the bell, the time was 3:00.7 seconds.

0:42:540:42:58

And this was announced.

0:42:590:43:01

-TANNOY:

-The time at three-quarters distance, 3:00.7 seconds.

0:43:010:43:06

The crowd began to go mad.

0:43:060:43:09

And they were roaring.

0:43:090:43:11

Chris Chataway took over and the time then was 3:01.

0:43:110:43:18

My friend remembers a guy in front of me holding his head in his hands.

0:43:180:43:23

He couldn't believe what was happening.

0:43:230:43:25

Not surprisingly we were slowing,

0:43:250:43:29

and I was rather concerned but I heard that the lap time of 3:01 and

0:43:290:43:35

realised that I had to do a last lap in 59.

0:43:350:43:39

Past the third lap, I was beginning to have difficulty.

0:43:390:43:43

Chataway was still in the lead,

0:43:430:43:46

still led around the bottom turn of the last lap...

0:43:460:43:50

I didn't want to overtake him too soon.

0:43:500:43:54

..and led until I think maybe a little past

0:43:550:43:58

the middle of the back straight.

0:43:580:44:00

I waited and didn't overtake Chris

0:44:000:44:05

until the beginning of the back straight.

0:44:050:44:08

Bannister blew by him very decisively

0:44:110:44:14

and Chataway did not slow down.

0:44:140:44:16

Roger swept past me on that back straight, and he looked superb.

0:44:160:44:20

He looked absolutely terrific.

0:44:200:44:22

He was so well-known for his devastating finish.

0:44:220:44:25

We all said, "Can he reproduce it at this pace?"

0:44:250:44:30

I was in the last turn,

0:44:300:44:32

probably coming in to the last turn when he went down the last straight.

0:44:320:44:37

And I could see that he was not losing anything.

0:44:370:44:41

He was flying.

0:44:410:44:42

I had no particular recognition of the difficulties,

0:44:420:44:46

except I had to run as hard as I could for the tape.

0:44:460:44:51

Gradually felt fatigue, ascending my legs,

0:44:510:44:56

but just managed to get to the tape, threw myself at it.

0:44:560:45:00

He just flung himself over the line.

0:45:000:45:03

But I wasn't sure that I had broken it.

0:45:030:45:07

It was, it was very emotional.

0:45:090:45:11

It was terribly exciting.

0:45:110:45:14

As I came down the last straight, I could see the excitement.

0:45:140:45:20

People jumping about and so on.

0:45:200:45:22

We'd gone through this terrible war,

0:45:220:45:24

and so there was a sort of trepidation

0:45:240:45:28

and everyone was thinking, "Well, has it all been in vain?"

0:45:280:45:33

When I came down to the finish,

0:45:330:45:35

I almost had to find my way to the finish line because people were

0:45:350:45:39

beginning to congregate.

0:45:390:45:40

So we were left waiting for a few minutes.

0:45:400:45:42

Was it the world record, but not under four minutes?

0:45:420:45:46

The three principal runners were

0:45:460:45:49

clustered with their immediate friends and supporters,

0:45:490:45:54

right by the finish line, waiting to hear.

0:45:540:45:57

I put my arms round them.

0:45:570:46:00

And of course there were a lot of

0:46:000:46:03

pictures immediately after the finish,

0:46:030:46:06

but I didn't know, and I couldn't tell them, until a time had elapsed.

0:46:060:46:12

There was silence. There was a waiting for the announcement.

0:46:120:46:17

And there was a delay.

0:46:170:46:19

It seemed to take forever for them to announce.

0:46:190:46:21

Norris McWhirter had this very English sort of laid-back feel.

0:46:210:46:25

But he did have a sense of drama.

0:46:250:46:27

And he began to announce the result.

0:46:280:46:32

-TANNOY:

-Ladies and gentlemen, here is the result

0:46:320:46:36

of event nine, the one mile.

0:46:360:46:38

Here is the result...

0:46:380:46:40

of event number nine, the one mile.

0:46:400:46:44

-TANNOY:

-First, number 41, RG Bannister,

0:46:440:46:48

Amateur Athletics Association and

0:46:480:46:50

formerly of Exeter and Merton Colleges, Oxford.

0:46:500:46:53

Then he went on, of course,

0:46:530:46:55

to relate the fact that Bannister was the holder

0:46:550:46:58

of the English native and British national

0:46:580:47:01

and British allcomers' record for the mile.

0:47:010:47:03

And the crowd groaned.

0:47:030:47:05

And you don't normally get that in an announcement.

0:47:050:47:08

I knew I must be close, but it was not at all certain

0:47:080:47:12

that I had broken it.

0:47:120:47:14

Second was CJ Chataway of the Achilles Club and then came a long

0:47:140:47:20

list of Chataway's credentials.

0:47:200:47:22

And I turned to Norman and I said, "He must have done it!"

0:47:220:47:26

-TANNOY:

-With a time that is a new meeting and track record...

0:47:260:47:30

And then there was silence and a pause...

0:47:300:47:33

and McWhirter said...

0:47:330:47:35

..the winner's time...

0:47:360:47:37

..is a new track record.

0:47:390:47:40

Yes? And so, what?

0:47:420:47:45

After another pause...

0:47:450:47:47

..the winning time, subject to ratification,

0:47:480:47:52

will be a new English native, British national...

0:47:520:47:56

-TANNOY:

-..allcomers' European,

0:47:560:48:00

British Empire...

0:48:000:48:02

And pending approval, a new world record.

0:48:020:48:05

And we gasped all round.

0:48:050:48:07

Then he said, after another long pause...

0:48:090:48:12

-TANNOY:

-The time was...

0:48:130:48:14

..in a time of...

0:48:140:48:16

..three minutes...

0:48:210:48:24

and then the number of seconds was obscured by the crowd's excitement.

0:48:240:48:29

-TANNOY:

-Three minutes...

0:48:290:48:32

Everyone exploded, and people ran all over the track,

0:48:320:48:36

and people didn't know how to express their joy.

0:48:360:48:39

There hadn't been joy of this kind since the war.

0:48:400:48:44

There was a sense, once the time had been announced,

0:48:440:48:46

that it was just a little too much to process.

0:48:460:48:50

Oh, wow!

0:48:500:48:52

That was a great moment.

0:48:520:48:54

People lifted Bannister, like a Roman hero, onto shoulders,

0:48:540:48:58

and they carried him round the track.

0:48:580:49:01

This is something to think about.

0:49:010:49:03

This is something that they thought was impossible, and by golly,

0:49:030:49:08

it is possible, and I saw it happen.

0:49:080:49:11

Once it was done, it wasn't low-key any more.

0:49:160:49:18

The sports night then was

0:49:180:49:22

on the night of the race.

0:49:220:49:25

We all went up to the BBC, interviewed there

0:49:250:49:29

and then it was masses of press and so on.

0:49:290:49:31

It was something to write home about.

0:49:310:49:34

Very definitely. And I did.

0:49:340:49:36

And I seem to remember that Harold Macmillan

0:49:360:49:39

was handed a note in the House of Commons and he stood up,

0:49:390:49:42

with the permission of the Speaker,

0:49:420:49:45

and said, "I've just been handed a

0:49:450:49:47

"note which tells me that Roger Bannister

0:49:470:49:50

"ran a mile in 3:59.4."

0:49:500:49:55

And all the MPs cheered!

0:49:550:49:57

Of course, Brasher had arranged that

0:49:570:50:01

we went to the Sloan Court restaurant

0:50:010:50:04

with our girlfriends.

0:50:040:50:05

"In view of this remarkable achievement by an Englishman,

0:50:050:50:09

"I propose the house adjourns for 3:59.4 seconds!"

0:50:090:50:14

I don't think I was aware of what the impact might be

0:50:140:50:20

until we got the early newspapers at about two o'clock in the morning.

0:50:200:50:24

In order to, sort of, capture the real excitement

0:50:320:50:35

that there was about it, and the atmosphere,

0:50:350:50:37

there was a kind of feeling that

0:50:370:50:40

this was the kind of start of the new Elizabethan age.

0:50:400:50:44

It was the opening of a new era,

0:50:440:50:46

a moment of national renewal after the war.

0:50:460:50:48

It's a watershed moment. There are great achievements by Brits,

0:50:480:50:51

the economy is starting to really boom...

0:50:510:50:53

Everest, the Coronation and the four-minute mile would provide this

0:50:530:50:57

kind of reassurance that Britain is still a great country.

0:50:570:51:00

Everest was conquered, and we had the Coronation, all on the same day.

0:51:000:51:05

And then the first four-minute mile.

0:51:050:51:07

They were like...

0:51:070:51:08

They were like giving a glass of water to a man dying of thirst.

0:51:100:51:13

I am pleased that it was done.

0:51:130:51:16

I'm pleased that it was done with the help of my friends.

0:51:160:51:22

I was very lucky to have my two friends,

0:51:220:51:25

Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway,

0:51:250:51:27

who helped to make some of the running early on.

0:51:270:51:30

And I certainly attribute a lot of it to their presence in the race.

0:51:300:51:37

And I am pleased that it was in Britain.

0:51:370:51:40

Everest had been climbed.

0:51:400:51:42

It was the Queen's reign starting,

0:51:420:51:45

so all these things seemed to have a symmetry.

0:51:450:51:49

As I have said, I thought winning Olympic races

0:51:490:51:54

is more important than the four-minute mile.

0:51:540:51:58

It so happens that the rest of the world thinks otherwise.

0:51:580:52:02

And it is Landy, running quite easily, relaxed and beautifully.

0:52:150:52:19

Not quite such a long stride as Bannister.

0:52:190:52:21

Landy comes down the straight.

0:52:210:52:23

No sooner does Sir Roger Bannister

0:52:230:52:25

break the magical four-minute barrier then,

0:52:250:52:27

the very next month, John Landy runs 3:58.

0:52:270:52:30

And this sets up, later in the year, one of the greatest,

0:52:300:52:34

most dramatic races of all time.

0:52:340:52:35

I wound up going to the British Empire Games in Vancouver,

0:52:400:52:45

where Landy raced against Bannister.

0:52:450:52:47

My father thought that that would be kind of the ultimate present for me,

0:52:470:52:50

and he was right.

0:52:500:52:51

With his beautiful, prancing stride, ready, poised,

0:52:510:52:55

here goes Landy, can Bannister catch him?

0:52:550:52:57

There is none of his famed spurt at the moment.

0:52:570:52:59

Landy is, I think, drawing slightly away.

0:52:590:53:02

Landy is running beautifully.

0:53:020:53:03

No, Bannister's coming up on him now. 150 yards to go,

0:53:030:53:06

and Bannister is gaining ever so slightly with each stride.

0:53:060:53:09

And then Bannister shifted to another gear,

0:53:090:53:11

and the crowd was so loud,

0:53:110:53:14

Landy couldn't hear him. But Landy turned to the inside to see how far

0:53:140:53:17

back Bannister was. And Bannister was right on his shoulder.

0:53:170:53:20

So then, when he looked around, Bannister had gone by him.

0:53:200:53:23

150 yards to go, and Bannister is coming up to Landy's elbow.

0:53:230:53:26

Bannister has passed Landy.

0:53:260:53:27

Landy comes into the straight, and it's going to be Bannister's race.

0:53:270:53:31

He's striding absolutely magnificently,

0:53:310:53:33

as Bannister breasts the tape now, and Landy's second...

0:53:330:53:36

That moment really bestowed a love for track and field.

0:53:360:53:40

It intensified it enormously.

0:53:400:53:41

And what would my life be if that hadn't happened?

0:53:410:53:45

It was... It was probably the best bonding experience I'd had with my

0:53:450:53:51

father in my whole life.

0:53:510:53:52

So it really had a significant role to play for me, personally.

0:53:520:53:55

There are a handful of names in the world,

0:53:550:53:58

people will instinctively know who you're talking about.

0:53:580:54:01

The first four-minute mile was

0:54:010:54:03

voted THE outstanding British sporting achievement

0:54:030:54:06

of the 20th century.

0:54:060:54:08

Neil Armstrong, John Glenn.

0:54:080:54:10

People that have done things for the very first time.

0:54:100:54:13

Sir Edmund Hillary.

0:54:130:54:14

That sort of calibre of achiever that people hold

0:54:140:54:17

Sir Roger Bannister in.

0:54:170:54:18

Britain didn't have too many world sporting heroes.

0:54:180:54:22

But Roger Bannister was this person

0:54:220:54:25

who kind of overarched all of that somehow.

0:54:250:54:28

As amazing as summiting Mount Everest was,

0:54:280:54:31

now, around 3,500 people have done that.

0:54:310:54:33

Whereas only 1,314 men have run under four minutes in the mile.

0:54:330:54:39

Bannister had the mental and physical ability

0:54:390:54:43

to push himself through that barrier and show the way to others.

0:54:430:54:48

I went to school that day.

0:54:480:54:49

My history teacher Jim Norton was also the basketball coach.

0:54:490:54:53

And he said, "I suppose you've all read that the four-minute mile was

0:54:530:54:56

"broken yesterday. I just want to tell you,

0:54:560:54:58

"as a man who spent his life in physical education,

0:54:580:55:01

"it's physically impossible. I think those watches were wrong."

0:55:010:55:04

If I'd finished my career and had never broken the world mile record,

0:55:040:55:07

I would've felt as though I'd missed out on something.

0:55:070:55:11

And suddenly I was on my own with a

0:55:110:55:13

lap to go, and the bizarre thing was, the whole last lap,

0:55:130:55:16

I was replaying in my mind the lines from Bannister's book about how he

0:55:160:55:20

felt on the last lap of his historic race.

0:55:200:55:23

I remember getting about 20, 30 metres from the line.

0:55:230:55:26

Kind of thinking, "I'm going to do it."

0:55:260:55:28

I could see the clock. And as I crossed the line I kind of point at

0:55:280:55:31

it with this stupid grin on my face.

0:55:310:55:33

And I remember doing the lap of honour.

0:55:330:55:36

Because of Bannister, I was running around that last lap

0:55:360:55:38

thinking, "Wow, you know, you're part of history."

0:55:380:55:41

The announcer said,

0:55:410:55:43

it's happened again and announced

0:55:430:55:45

that the time of 3:59.6 had been run.

0:55:450:55:48

Out of great respect, I didn't break Bannister's track record of 3:59.4,

0:55:480:55:52

and he came out on the track, I got to meet him, shake his hand,

0:55:520:55:57

have my picture taken.

0:55:570:55:58

It really changed my life. It's one of the greatest human achievements

0:55:580:56:02

ever. Something that I would put on par with going to the moon.

0:56:020:56:04

Because it's a question of, can we actually do this?

0:56:040:56:07

If we can show ourselves we can do this,

0:56:070:56:09

then there's all sorts of other things we know we can do.

0:56:090:56:12

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