Running legend Dave Wottle was really a Miler

1972 Olympic 800m champion with numerous national Mile titles and world class times was one of the best at the storied distance

By Rick Schnittker

I first met Dave Wottle as a 15-year-old making a trip to the Ohio JC Summer State Meet in Canton, Ohio. I had qualified for the event with my...

Mile Moment of the Month: 50 years ago Peter Snell sets rare world record

“The first half Mile was, I felt, too fast, but I was carried along by the whole atmosphere and excitement... I struggled along to the three-quarter mark, and from then on I was hanging on desperately.”

By Bring Back the Mile

Like October, which also has few top racing opportunities, the...

Mile Moment of the Month: Rare World Record Set in October

On that windless fall day in the City of Lights, Jules Ladoumègue was so anxious that he false started!

By Bring Back the Mile

October is a slow month for the Mile as the year’s racing season is virtually all done by the end of summer, and thus, over the past 125-plus years, only a few U.S....

The 4 minute Mile: How the Daily Express reported it 60 years ago

One of the greatest feats ever achieved by a British athlete almost never took place...

By Dominic Midgley, Daily Express

It was the behavior of a Cross of St. George flag flying on the steeple of St. John's Church near the Iffley Road track in Oxford on Thursday, May 6, 1954 that persuaded...

Mile Moment of the Month: The Mile of the Century – Bannister vs. Landy 1954

First time two men go sub-4 minutes in the same Mile race

By Bring Back the Mile

Sixty years ago, on Saturday, August 7, at the 1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada, the world’s two best Milers, England’s Roger Bannister, the first man to run a sub-4 minute Mile, and...

Ryun reflects upon 50th anniversary of breaking 4 minute Mile

“When I crossed the finish line, I was a little discouraged, because I thought I hadn’t done it.”

By Rick Plumlee, The Wichita Eagle

Six hundred yards into the Mile race, Jim Ryun was bumped in the tight pack of runners. He stumbled off the track to the infield.

“I wasn’t even sure I’d...

Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Diane Leather Breaking the 5 Minute Mile Barrier

By Peter Thompson

This article has been published in its entirety with the author's permission. It was initially published in the 'BMC News', the Club magazine of the British Milers' Club, in Spring 2014.

Many of you reading this blog are aware of the the 60th anniversary of breaking the 4...

Cram’s Dream Mile

“Certainly the easiest record was the Mile. I remember crossing the line and feeling ‘woah’ and later that night I said to a few people that if I did 3:46 feeling like that then 3:44 was possible."

By Jason Henderson, Athletics Weekly

Of all Steve Cram’s record-breaking achievements, his one...

The Four-Minute Man, Forever

Franz Stampfl, his coach, implored him to run in a meet between Oxford and the Amateur Athletic Association: “He said to me, ‘Although the conditions are not ideal, if you don’t take this opportunity, you might not forgive yourself for the rest of your life.’ He was right.”

By Jesse Will, The...

Roger Bannister: ‘The day I broke the 4 minute Mile’

In an extract from his new book, "Twin Tracks", Bannister recounts how he prepared for his unforgettable, legendary race: "I felt at that moment that it was my chance to do one thing supremely well."

Sixty years ago, on May 6, 1954, at Iffley Road track in Oxford, Roger Bannister became the...