The Roger Bannister Link

Daniel's running career is intriguingly linked to that of Roger Bannister,Daniel at Vale Farm July 1983 the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes.

Daniel's first official race, at age six years and one month, was on 6th May 1984, the 30th anniversary of the day that Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile.  To commemorate this anniversary, a national event called "The Day of the Mile" had been organised, and anyone could go along to any of several running tracks around the country, to be officially timed over one mile.  Daniel ran this, his first race, at Vale Farm, Wembley, in 9 minutes 31 seconds.

Day of the Mile small

Moving on 20 years to 6th May 2004, Daniel had, the previous month, broken the 3 hour barrier on his sixth attempt at the London Marathon. He had one more barrier that he particularly wanted to breach: five minutes for the mile.  However, Britain's running boom seemed to be over, and there was no " Day of the Mile" event to commemorate 50 years since Bannister's achievement.

Back in 1954, Bannister had held his world record for just six weeks until his great rival, John Landy of Australia, broke it by more than a second with a time of 3:58.0. The stage was now set for a dramatic showdown between the two runners in the final of the One Mile at the Empire Games in Vancouver on 7th August 1954.

This race proved to be probably the most exciting mile race ever run and is still known as the "Miracle Mile". A statue stands in Vancouver to commemorate its moment of highest drama, when John Landy looked back over his left shoulder just as Roger Bannister passed him on his right. Of that instant John Landy said, “When Lot’s wife looked back she was turned into a pillar of salt. When I looked back I was turned into a pillar of bronze!”.

Fifty years to the day after the "Miracle Mile", on 7th August 2004, Daniel ran the
One Mile at the London Inter-Club Challenge Meeting at Woodford Green in a time of 4:54.08. It was the first and only time that Daniel beat five minutes for the mile in an official race, and according to his own "Personal Bests" spreadsheet it was the best race he ever ran
.

One Mile Result 7th August 2004

Official Result for the One Mile, Woodford Green, 7th August 2004

The Miracle Mile, Vancouver, 7th August 1954 - click to view

If the video does not show above, click here

Miracle_Mile.jpg Miracle Mile

The Miracle Mile in paint and in bronze