LONDON (Reuters) - Roger Bannister, who has died aged 88, will live forever in the annals of athletics history as the first man to run a mile in under four minutes.
A statement from his family on Sunday said: Sir Roger Bannister, died peacefully in Oxford on 3 March, aged 88, surrounded by his family who were as loved by him, as he was loved by them. ... He banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends.
British Prime Minister Theresa May led the tributes to the former athlete, who later became one of Europes leading neurologists and was made a knight.
Sir Roger Bannister was a great British sporting icon whose achievements were an inspiration to us all. He will be greatly missed, she said on Twitter.
The record-breaking run was on the Oxford University track during a local athletics meeting with only a few spectators witnessing the Englishmans destruction of the myth that no human being could run so fast.
Bannister made headlines around the world at the age of 25. His achievement opened the physical and psychological door for many other milers who have since beaten his time of three minutes 59.4 seconds.
Roger Gilbert Bannister, born in Harrow, a London suburb, on March 23, 1929, was a shy, gangling medical student who preferred to be an oarsman rather than a runner.
In 1946, when he went to Oxford, his great ambition was to row against Cambridge in the annual boat race on the Thames.
But Bannister, who stood 1.8 meters tall and weighed only 68 kilograms, was told he was too light to make a first-rate oarsman.
So he turned to running and his new ambition became to win the 1,500 meters at the Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952.
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Bannister started a five-year build-up and in 1947 at the age of 17 at Oxford ran his first mile race, finishing second in a time of just over five minutes. Later that year he won the mile for Oxford against Cambridge in an athletics meeting.
LONE WOLF
He asked for his name to be withdrawn from a list of 1948 Olympic possibles and continued his careful preparations for the 1952 games. But he managed only fourth place in the Helsinki Games 1,500 meters final.
The press criticized him for faulty training methods. Bannister, nicknamed thelone wolf miler because he scorned coaches, had worked out his own training schedule to fit in with his studies.
After Helsinki he became the forgotten man of athletics. But he had set his sights on the four-minute-mile a challenge which had fascinated athletes and enthusiasts for years.
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