On Monday, Might 5, Oxford performed host to the second annual Bannister Miles celebration with a group mile alongside the Excessive Avenue and 24 one-mile monitor races on the Iffley Highway Athletics Observe, with 4 males operating underneath 4 minutes within the elite race.
The occasion commemorated Sir Roger Bannister’s legendary sub-four-minute mile in 1954.
The celebration ended with the lads’s elite race which noticed Joe Wigfield of Wirral AC take the win. Similar to Bannister on Might 6 1954, the 25-year-old took a transparent lead on the final lap and crossed the road in 3:56.64. Solely a brisk northerly wind held him again from a British Milers Membership file (3:55.70).
Elite males (Graham Smith)
Following carefully behind was Jacob Cann from Western Tempo in 3:58.15 and Harry Wakefield from Salford Harrier’s who ran a brand new private finest of three:58.42.
Rounding out the highest 4 males who all ran underneath 4 minutes was Preston Harrier’s Tiaran Crorken in 3:59.46 who grew to become the primary man to run sub-four twice at Iffley Highway.
Two Oxford College athletes within the elite race, Alex Gruen and Nicholas Whittaker, got here by way of in 4:04.11 and 4:05.29. The monitor now boasts eight sub-fours in two years – as many as have been run within the earlier 70 years.
It was Cambridge’s victory within the elite ladies’s race, as Holly Dixon of Cambridge Harriers crossed the road in 4:40.05, forward of Hannah Cameron (4:43.62) of Aberdeen. Isla McGowan of Banbury Harriers completed third following her U17 Mini London Marathon win the week prior.
Virtually 300 athletes took half with the celebration additionally together with para races and the novel one-mile steeplechase. Kieran O’Hara of Havering was the winner of the para 1500m race (4:08.50) whereas Mark Pearce of Birmingham Working AC (4:27.60) and Olivia McGhee from Rugby & Northampton (5:20.22) gained the women and men’s steeplechase.
Thomas Renshaw, organiser of the occasion for the college’s cross-country membership, mentioned: “The celebration goes from energy to energy. It’s turning into an impressive magnet for prime milers. Women and men from under-13s to veterans, come right here to show their value early within the season.
“Whereas the Group Mile was one other huge success with over 1200 individuals operating down the Excessive Avenue and the ever rising ‘Household Wave’ a spotlight of the morning actions.”
The occasion was run in tandem with the British Milers’ Membership, which has faithfully promoted competitors at this distinctively British distance for 62 years.
The second annual group mile noticed waves and waves of runners sweep down the Excessive Avenue and end on Iffley Highway, choosing up finisher medals on the Sir Roger Bannister Observe.
Chris Thompson, who represented GB within the 2020 Olympic marathon, tooted the beginning horn together with his son Theo. One among Roger Bannister’s great-grandchildren, six-year-old Saskia Townsend, ran within the household wave together with her father, Barnaby Townsend.
All of that is a part of a multi-year undertaking to make this occasion the premier mile racing occasion within the nation, culminating within the seventy fifth anniversary of Bannister’s achievement in 2029.
