To mark the 70th anniversary of the sub-four-minute mile, a new book on Roger Bannister’s life is packed with great info and images, plus we look at ‘Don’t Crush the Eggs in Your Armpit’ It traces Bannister’s rise from university champion to world celebrity as the man who in 1954 broke through the four-minute mile barrier, a feat which was compared to the conquest of Everest as a landmark in human achievement. Bannister was a superb natural athlete, but more than that he went on to become a doctor, a scientist and master of an Oxford college. He was a writer and a philosopher, who upheld the ideals of amateur sport.
He devoted much of his later life to encouraging sport at grass-roots level. The book also contains a rich number of photographs ranging from pictures of Bannister’s childhood through to his university years, the Helsinki Olympics, family life as a married man and finally as an elder statesman of sport and Master of Pembroke College in Oxford. The photographs include Bannister acting in a drama society play, receiving a AAA half-mile trophy from the Queen and mountaineering in the Alps.
There are also, of course, a number of photos from the iconic sub-four-minute mile itself at Iffley Road too. Mike Fleet is part of the fabric of British athletics. As an athlete he finished fifth in the 1962 Empire Games 880 yards final won by Peter Snell.
Since hanging up his spikes he has been an avid coach, photographer and supporter of athletes at a multitude of do.