Roger Bannister never won an Olympic gold, but he left a mark that no one would ever forget: breaking the four-minute mile.
Most of the athletes in London’s 1,500 meter race — the metric mile — are far faster today than he was. Still, he can’t help but analyze the race, which he watched in the Olympic stands with two-time Olympic 1,500 champion and London Games chief Sebastian Coe.
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He watched as Taoufik Makhloufi broke away down the stretch to take the Olympic gold medal, the one prize he never collected. His time? 3 minutes, 34.08 seconds. Good enough for gold, but far from the world record.
“It’s very unusual to get world records broken when there are 12 runners,” said Bannister, 83. “The concern today is to win the race. The time is purely secondary. If the time becomes too slow, then it’s disappointing for everyone. So this was just about in between.”
— Stephen Wilson, Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevewilsonap
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EDITOR’S NOTE — “Eyes on London” shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.
