38 sub-4's by 1955?

jijiwat wrote:

Didn't Chris Brashear (sp?) pace Bannister?

Christopher Brasher (along with Chataway) were both pacers in that famous race!

jijiwat wrote:Didn't Chris Brashear (sp?) pace Bannister?

Brasher (rhymes with "racer," sort of--no matter what the announcer says [below]), who won the 1956 OG SC, took Bannister through the first two laps of his record mile. Then Chataway took over for another lap or so.

Apologies for the soundtracks--there's a better (complete) film of the race out there, but I don't have the link.

I kind of enjoy these, however, because they make clear how friggin' cold and windy it was that day. Also, I had never given Chataway enough credit--you can *see* the balls that it took to move in front of Bannister and carry the load in that third lap.

well... wrote:Keep in mind Chataway would have medaled, possibly won, the 1952 Olympics 5K had he not fallen less than 200m from the finish.

Well, maybe.

I've seen the film of that race and Chataway was staggering--he had made his move too early--which is mostly why he stepped on the curb to begin with. If he'd stayed up, I suppose he *might* have beaten Schade for third, but I doubt it. No way he beats Zatopek or Mimoun.

All props to Chataway, though, for getting up and finishing. He was fifth--Pirie passed him on the way in.

Here's that last lap:

Bannister actually received a lot of criticism for using pacers to break the barrier. Amateur officials argued that that's not what track was all about, it was about one runner trying to beat another. Earlier attempts actually had one pacer get lapped, having only run 2 laps when Bannister would come around for the bell - had he run sub-4 for that they would have not wanted to count it as the "first".

Many people liked Landy because he was always determined in running alone up front, believing that his strength would carry him thru. It was Chataway breathing down Landy's neck in Finland, something Landy wasn't used to, that pushed him that extra bit the last lap to run his 3:57.9.

Bannister was extra determined to beat Landy in their head-to-head "Miracle Mile" in Vancouver that year because he knew that if he didn't win, Landy would always be remembered as the faster man and the better racer. He had been determined to get to sub-4 first to redeem himself from the '52 Olympics in which he "failed" his country - now he didn't want losing to Landy to overshadow his feat of being the first to break the barrier.

present wrote:

Well, maybe.

I've seen the film of that race and Chataway was staggering--he had made his move too early--which is mostly why he stepped on the curb to begin with. If he'd stayed up, I suppose he *might* have beaten Schade for third, but I doubt it. No way he beats Zatopek or Mimoun.

All props to Chataway, though, for getting up and finishing. He was fifth--Pirie passed him on the way in.

Here's that last lap:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Irnx6Upmkg

Cool - I've never seen that clip, just read about it a while back. You definitely have a point, it's crazy how he just flat out stopped right before falling, have to wonder what exactly was going on there.

Holy shit who's this guy? He busts out a 5.54 when the record was 3.57 way back in 1964 and Ive never heard of him. What else did he run? Did he ever race Ryan?

27 Jan 62 Peter Snell NZ 3:54.4 m 3:54.03 17 Nov 64

bloze wrote:

Holy shit who's this guy? He busts out a 5.54 when the record was 3.57 way back in 1964 and Ive never heard of him. What else did he run? Did he ever race Ryan?

27 Jan 62 Peter Snell NZ 3:54.4 m 3:54.03 17 Nov 64

His 3:54.4 lowering it from 3:54.5 by Elliot set in Dublin 6 Aug 1958 only clipped a tenth off.

Herb Elliot took the WR from Derek Ibbotson,you remember him I'm sure,who ran 3:57.2 in London July 1957. That 2.8 sec drop is the largest change in the mile record ever recorded I believe.

You've never heard of this guy? You can't be serious. He only won three Olympic gold medals and set five world records. No reason to know who he was.

Man, the depth of historical knowledge on this site is staggering.

This is funny - I work for a Fortune 100 company and a few years ago we spent a ton of money on some stupid motivational speaker. He spoke, almost verbatim, the quote from the original post, except he said that over 100 runners broke 4 minutes within a year of Bannister.

I stood up in front of 400 people and called him on it. I chastised him later saying, you would never take a baseball or football record so drastically out of proportion - 100 guys hit 70 homeruns the year after McGwire did it.

He apologized, saying he "thought" he had read that somewhere - we paid his stupid company over $100,000 for a 2 day seminar with these clowns.

WDC Runner wrote:

Cool Statistic wrote:

or concerning just Americans and sub 4 at least? There used to be one that showed each year and which Americans broke 4 for the first time, but I don't remember where it is.

Didn't someone post the list of Americans on this message board just two weeks ago? Use the search function and you'll find it.

What would you suggest I searched for? American sub 4 milers is very broad...

Help for the google-impaired:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1792317