On Monday, Could 5, Oxford performed host to the second annual Bannister Miles celebration with a group mile alongside the Excessive Avenue and 24 one-mile observe races on the Iffley Street Athletics Observe, with 4 males operating below 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 boys’s elite race which noticed Joe Wigfield of Wirral AC take the win. Similar to Bannister on Could 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 report (3:55.70).
Elite males (Graham Smith)
Following intently 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 below 4 minutes was Preston Harrier’s Tiaran Crorken in 3:59.46 who turned the primary man to run sub-four twice at Iffley Street.
Two Oxford College athletes within the elite race, Alex Gruen and Nicholas Whittaker, got here by means of in 4:04.11 and 4:05.29. The observe 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 girls’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 Operating AC (4:27.60) and Olivia McGhee from Rugby & Northampton (5:20.22) received the women and men’s steeplechase.
Thomas Renshaw, organiser of the occasion for the college’s cross-country membership, stated: “The celebration goes from power to power. It’s changing into a powerful magnet for high milers. Women and men from under-13s to veterans, come right here to show their price 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 Street, choosing up finisher medals on the Sir Roger Bannister Observe.
Chris Thompson, who represented GB within the 2020 Olympic marathon, tooted the beginning horn along with his son Theo. Considered one of Roger Bannister’s great-grandchildren, six-year-old Saskia Townsend, ran within the household wave along 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.
