ATHLETICS: Everything was almost as it was exactly 50 years ago when the runners in the men's mile were called to their marks shortly after 6 p.m. at Iffley Road, Oxford, last night. Even the flag on the spire of St George's Church that overlooks the track was the same as then.

In the stands the years rolled back for Roger Bannister to 1954 when he had run three minutes 59.4 seconds, the most famous figures in a sport where statistics are bread and butter.

Craig Mottram, winner of the celebratory race, would have left Bannister 30 metres behind with his time of 3:56.64, but racing against the clock, a metaphor for mortality, has conferred on Bannister a certain immortality.

At 75 he is an old man now but whose youth is celebrated around this time every year, though never as spectacularly as in these past weeks.

Bannister has never embraced fame and is justifiably proud of being a doctor, author and a former master of Pembroke College, Oxford University. But it was his athletics achievements that drew an impressive collection of former world record holders, including Sonia O'Sullivan, and Olympic and world champions.

They included John Landy, who travelled from Australia and who had broken Bannister's record 46 days after it was set, although that was little consolation after earlier coming so close to being the history-maker himself.

Television crews from around the world had made a pilgrimage to Oxford. Until Bannister's performance, running sub-four minutes for a mile was thought impossible. Since then 962 others have beaten four minutes.

The American Steve Scott achieved the feat 141 times and in 1997 Kenya's Daniel Komen ran back-to-back sub-four-minute miles in running 7:58.61 for two.

Bannister presented Mottram with a medal before striding away to join his closest friends.

Guardian Service