Sixty years ago today ...

Roger Bannister ran the first four minute mile. He narrates this video. The run was a masterpiece of pacing, assisted by Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher, who led him through the first couple of laps. Bannister was a working physician as well as a track athlete when he carried out this careful assault on the record.

The mile record today is 3:43.13, held by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco. The distance is seldom contested; international track races are run in meters, so the nearest equivalent is the 1500 meters. El Guerrouj holds that record as well. Both date from the late 1990s; either some kind of physiological limit has been approached or assisting substances have become too readily detectable.