"Diane Leather Diane Leather Charles (7 January 1933 – 5 September 2018) was an English athlete who was the first woman to run a sub-5-minute mile. Leather was born in Streetly, Staffordshire. She was one of six children, and the only daughter, of Mabel (nee Barringer) and James Leather, a surgeon. She played lacrosse as a child, however watching the 1952 Summer Olympics sparked her interest in athletics. She joined the Birchfield Harriers club in Birmingham, where she was an analytical chemist at the University of Birmingham, and was coached by Doris Nelson Neal. Neal saw that Leather had the"
"potential to perform well in longer races, however at the time the longest recognised event in women's athletics was the 200 metre race. Nevertheless she coached Leather for racing the mile and the following year, she broke the world best time, running a mile in 5:02.6. Her achievement was labelled ""world best"" rather than ""world record"" by the IAAF as the distance was not officially recognised for a further 15 years On 29 May 1954, Leather broke the 5-minute barrier with a time of 4 minutes and 59.6 seconds during the Midlands Women's AAA Championships at Birmingham's Alexander Sports Ground."
"woman to win Olympic athletics medals before and after the war. Her 1936 win also made her the first British woman to win an individual Olympic medal in athletics. Odam was also twice a gold medallist at the British Empire Games, winning at Sydney in 1938 and Auckland in 1950. In Sydney she was the only Englishwoman to win athletics gold, setting a Games record of 5 ft 3 in, which is the same as 1.60 meters. In 2012, she was the official starter for the London Marathon. She died on 25 September 2014 aged 94 following a long illness."
"up with the idea for the ""Guinness Book of Records"", it was Chataway who suggested his old university friends Norris and Ross McWhirter as editors, knowing of their liking for facts. Chataway continued with his running. When Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four minute mile on 6 May 1954 at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track, Chataway and Chris Brasher were his pacemakers. He finished in second place in the 5000 m at the European Athletics Championship of 1954, 12.2 seconds behind the winner Vladimir Kuts, but two weeks later turned the tables at a London v. Moscow athletics competition at"
"Coincidentally, it was only 23 days since Roger Bannister had become the first man to run a sub 4-minute mile, 100 km away. In 1955, Leather broke the mile record by a further 15 seconds, achieving her personal best of 4:45. This remained the world record for seven years until New Zealand's Marise Chamberlain ran 4:41.4 in 1962. Leather won two European Championship silver medals at 800 metres: at the 1954 event in Bern, she was second behind the Soviet Union's Nina Otkalenko in 2:09.8, while at the 1958 event in Stockholm, she was second to another Soviet, Yelizaveta Yermolayeva,"
"Carol Tyson Carol Tyson (15 December 1957 – 12 June 2005) was a British racewalking athlete. She was a three-time competitor at the IAAF World Race Walking Cup and was twice a silver medallist. Born to Jack and Peggy Tyson, both medical doctors, she attended Keswick School as a boarder and took up racewalking while there. Women's walking was in its early stages of development and, along with Marion Fawkes, Tyson was a leading athlete for Great Britain. She claimed national titles at the 5 km and 5000 m distances in her early twenties, including two titles at the UK"
"Church, Tibshelf. On the fiftieth anniversary of his run, a one mile stretch of the Five Pits Trail was designed as the 'Tom Hulatt Mile' identified by two marker stones, with inscribed plaques, in coal measures sandstone donated by the National Trust. Tom Hulatt William Thomas ""Tom"" Hulatt (7 September 1930 – 21 May 1990) was an English athlete notable for finishing third behind Sir Christopher Chataway in the historic race in which Sir Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on 6 May 1954. He was from a working-class family and the only runner in the race who was"
"Roger Bannister Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister (23 March 1929 – 3 March 2018) was a British middle-distance athlete and neurologist who ran the first sub-4-minute mile. At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres and finished in fourth place. This achievement strengthened his resolve to become the first athlete to finish the mile run in under four minutes. He accomplished this feat on 6 May 1954 at Iffley Road track in Oxford, with Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher providing the pacing. When the announcer, Norris McWhirter, declared , the cheers of the crowd"
"kilometre, or 14.91 seconds per 100 metres). It also equals 22 feet per second (1320 feet per minute). Breaking the four-minute barrier was first achieved on 6 May 1954 at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track, by Englishman Roger Bannister, with the help of fellow-runners Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher as pacemakers. Two months later, during the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games hosted in Vancouver, B.C., two competing runners, Australia's John Landy and Bannister, ran the distance of one mile in under four minutes. The race's end is memorialised in a photo, and later a statue, of the two, with"
"Joyce Smith Joyce Esther Smith (née Byatt, born 26 October 1937) is a British former long-distance runner. She broke the world record in the 3000 metres in 1971 and is a three-time medallist at the International/World Cross Country Championships, including winning in 1972. She went on to twice win the London Marathon, becoming the first British woman in history to run under 2:30 when winning in 1981 with 2:29:57, before further improving the British record to 2:29:43 when winning in 1982. She also competed in the 1500 metres at the 1972 Munich Olympics and finished 11th in the marathon at"
"Tom Hulatt William Thomas ""Tom"" Hulatt (7 September 1930 – 21 May 1990) was an English athlete notable for finishing third behind Sir Christopher Chataway in the historic race in which Sir Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile on 6 May 1954. He was from a working-class family and the only runner in the race who was not a university student. Hulatt was born in Tibshelf, Derbyshire, and after leaving school he joined the army but bought himself out. He worked as a miner at Williamthorpe Colliery and he would run five miles there and back each day. He"
"broke the UK W50 record by running 79:39 at the Fleet Half Marathon. A record that stood until 2011. She became an athletics coach at her running club Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow Athletic Club Paula Fudge Paula Fudge (née Yeoman; born 30 March 1952) is an English former middle and long-distance runner. She won a gold medal in the 3000 metres at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, and on 13 September 1981 she set the world record for the 5000 metres with 15.14.51, the first recognised women's 5000m world record by the IAAF. This record remained the British record until"
"Paula Fudge Paula Fudge (née Yeoman; born 30 March 1952) is an English former middle and long-distance runner. She won a gold medal in the 3000 metres at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, and on 13 September 1981 she set the world record for the 5000 metres with 15.14.51, the first recognised women's 5000m world record by the IAAF. This record remained the British record until 1985 when it was broken by Zola Budd. She also won a bronze medal in the 3000 metres at the 1982 European Indoor Championships. Fudge made her marathon debut at the 1985 Columbus Marathon, winning"
"Ruth Christmas Ruth Lillian Christmas (12 November 1904 – 2 April 2001) was a British middle-distance runner. Christmas and her sister Esther followed their father into athletics. Ruth began competing in Cambridge in the 1920s, then moved to London and joined the London Olympiades women's athletics club. She took second place in the half-mile at the British Championships in 1929, and began competing internationally, recording impressive results. In the mile, she recorded a possible world record time of 5:27.5 in 1932. In her favoured distance of 880-yards or 800-metres, Christmas had a longstanding rivalry with Gladys Lunn, and finally beat"
"difficult achievement, long thought impossible by the scientific community. The first man to break the four-minute barrier was Englishman Roger Bannister at Oxford in 1954. The current record holders are Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco) (3:43.13, Rome, 7 July 1999) and Svetlana Masterkova (Russia) (4:12.56, Zürich, 14 August 1996). Another event that is rarely run, a miler's speed will generally allow him/her to prevail at this distance over less balanced challengers. Hicham El Guerrouj (Morocco) (4:44.79, Berlin, 7 September 1999) and Sonia O'Sullivan (Ireland) (5:25.36, Edinburgh, 8 July 1994) are currently the fastest at this distance outdoors. On February 7, 2017,"
"Beryl Randle Beryl Randle (born 16 December 1928) is a former race walker and an athletics administrator. She raced for Birchfield Harriers. She took up competitive walking in 1946, after coming last in a 100-metre sprint, and was coached by Doris Nelson Neal. To train, she would walk from her home in Walsall to her workplace in Digbeth, Birmingham, and back - each day. On 29 May 1954, she broke the world record for the one-mile walk, with a time of 7 minutes 49 seconds. On 19 June 1954, she shaved over ten seconds from her own record, at the"
"Doris Nelson Neal Dorothy Nelson Neal OBE (1908–1982) was influential in the early days of women's athletics in Great Britain. Neal was a high-ranking member of Birchfield Harriers athletics club for 53 years, and is recognised as one of the main and most respected characters in the clubs history. She competed as an athlete before taking up coaching and is recognised as the first female to coach a female athlete to a World Record, having been the coach of Diane Leather when she became the first women to run the mile in under five minutes. Neal was an official at"
"but suspended until 1960 because of shock and the exhaustion it caused the competitors. Without the benefits of modern training, men of the era were, in contrast, expected to run themselves to complete exhaustion during competitions. David Rudisha (Kenya) is the current recordholder: 1:40.91, London, 9 August 2012. Jarmila Kratochvílová (Czechoslovakia) set the current women's record: 1:53.28, Munich, 26 July 1983. The run, or half mile, was the forebear to the 800 m distance and has its roots in competitions in the United Kingdom in the 1830s. This distance is not commonly raced, though it is more common than the"
"children. Parker died of cancer aged 65. Her brother Clem Parker also won a silver medal in a sprint relay at the 1950 British Empire Games. Dorothea Parker Mary Dorothea ""Dorrie"" Parker (later ""Smith""; 10 August 1928 – 24 December 1993) was a New Zealand sprinter. At the 1950 British Empire Games she won a silver medal in the 440 yards relay, alongside Shirley Hardman and Lesley Rowe. She also ran in the 100 yard, 220 yard, and 660 yard relay, placing fourth in each event. Clark said she was overlooked for the 1954 British Empire Games at Vancouver, and"
"running 2:06.6. She was also a two-time winner of the women's race at the International Cross Country Championships in 1954 and 1955, and won the national cross country women's title four times. She married Peter Charles, an industrial engineer turned financial consultant, in 1959, and competed in her final competition, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, as Diana Charles. She was eliminated in the heats of the 800 metres, in 2:14.24. She held the British record for 1500m for 11 years and held claim to the world mark in the mile for 8 years in total. Charles retired from athletics"
"she was unwilling and homesick. Zola Budd Zola Pieterse (""née"" Budd; born 26 May 1966) is a middle-distance and long-distance runner. She competed at the 1984 Olympic Games for Great Britain and the 1992 Olympic Games for South Africa, both times in the 3000 metres. In 1984 (unratified) and 1985, she broke the world record in the women's 5000 metres. She was also a two-time winner at the World Cross Country Championships (1985–1986). Budd's career was unusual in that she mainly trained and raced barefoot. She moved with her family to South Carolina in 2008, and competes at marathons and"
"the falling athlete on her outside, to take the title. Ridley died of cancer at the age of 66 in 2013. Rita Ridley Rita Ridley (née Lincoln; 4 November 1946 – 12 February 2013) was an English middle- and long-distance runner. She started in athletics at school in Essex with her twin sister Iris. Aged 18, she finished second to Joyce Smith in the mile race at the WAAA Championships. She won the following year in a championship record time of 4:47.9, retained the national mile title in 1967 and won the newly introduced 1500 metres in 1968, 1970 and"
"5 miles in 39:23 min. About 14 days later she ran 10 km in 48:08 min. Brenda Jones (athlete) Brenda Jones (later Carr, born 17 November 1936) is a retired Australian middle distance runner. At the 1958 national championships she won the 440 yards and 880 yards races. In 1960 she was fifth in 440 yards and second in 880 yards. At the 1960 Olympics, she led the 800 m race, but in the last few metres lost to Lyudmila Shevtsova, who equalled her world record. Today she remains active in athletics. In February 2004 she ran a half marathon"
"Christine Benning Christine Benning (née Tranter, born 30 March 1955) is an English former middle-distance runner who competed mainly in the 1500 metres and the 3000 metres. In the 1500 m, she represented Great Britain at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, finishing fifth in the final. She won a silver medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton. She also broke the UK record in 1979, with 4:01.53. As of 2014, she still ranks in the UK all-time top ten for the mile. Benning was born in Urmston, Greater Manchester, England. In 1971, as Christine Tranter, she won"
"the MBE. She and her husband, Bryan, are on the board of trustees of the London Marathon Charitable Trust. Bryan is a marathon coach who also organises the Mini London Marathon. Joyce Smith Joyce Esther Smith (née Byatt, born 26 October 1937) is a British former long-distance runner. She broke the world record in the 3000 metres in 1971 and is a three-time medallist at the International/World Cross Country Championships, including winning in 1972. She went on to twice win the London Marathon, becoming the first British woman in history to run under 2:30 when winning in 1981 with 2:29:57,"
"in the build-up to the marathon, these reports did not follow up on her life after the race. It is not known whether she met Philimon or if she ever found a job. As Tarasouleas stated, ""Stamata Revithi was lost in the dust of history"". Violet Piercy, of the United Kingdom, was the first woman to complete an officially timed marathon race: she clocked a time of 3 hours and 40 minutes in a British race on 3 October 1926. Women were finally allowed to run the Olympic marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics, when American Joan Benoit won the"
"as Britain's first female Olympians in athletics events, together with Ethel Johnson, Eileen Hiscock, Nellie Halstead, and seventeen-year-old Violet Webb. They sailed for five days from Southampton to Quebec and then travelled a further 3000 miles by train before arriving in Los Angeles. In the 4 x 100 metres women's relay she won the bronze medal with her team mates Eileen Hiscock, Violet Webb (replacing the injured Johnson) and Nellie Halstead. In the women's 100 metres she came 4th in her heat. Gwendoline Porter Gwendoline Alice Porter (25 April 1902–date of death unknown) was a British track and field athlete"
"the only British runner and track event athlete to have competed in five games. She is also the 2012 European Championship silver medallist in the 10,000 m and a two-time 5000 m medallist at the Commonwealth Games, winning silver in Melbourne 2006 and bronze in Glasgow 2014. At global level, her best results include crossing the line fourth in the 10,000 m at the 2007 World Championships and fifth in the 5000 m at the 2004 Olympic Games. In 2015 media reports stated that 2007 silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse had been found, on retesting, to have taken a prohibited substance,"
"British marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe. Throughout the race, Xing marked the Ethiopian favorites, not taking the lead until the home stretch with a final kick Dibabba could not match. Xing's final lap was just under 63 seconds. , the existing World and Olympic records were as follows. No new records were set during the competition. The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the women's 5000 metres, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 31:45.00 or faster during the qualification period."
"the tradition continued, with the winner signing his name in a red leather-bound book identical to the Bible used in Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. Derek Ibbotson achieved the first sub-4-minute run at the race in 1956, and many of the best middle-distance runners have won at the Emsley Carr Mile since, including Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Hicham El Guerrouj. The Millicent Fawcett Mile, a women's race, was first held in the 2018 Anniversary Games and won by Sifan Hassan in 4:14.71. It commemorates suffragist Millicent Fawcett. There had been a women's mile event at previous games, without this title,"
"Hannah England Hannah England (born 6 March 1987) is a British middle-distance running athlete who specialises in the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run. At 1500 m, she is the 2011 World Championship silver medallist and finished fourth at the 2013 World Championships. She also competed at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. England is one of only three British woman in history (as of 2014) to have run under two minutes for 800 m and nine minutes for 3000 m, the others being Christina Boxer and Kirsty Wade. Born in Oxford, England, she attended the Cherwell School in"
"mark. Over 18 years after Coghlan, that was finally achieved by UK's Anthony Whiteman, running 3:58.79 on 2 June 2012. No woman has yet run a four-minute mile. , the women's world record is held by retired Russian Svetlana Masterkova, with a time of 4:12.56 in 1996. In 1997, Daniel Komen of Kenya ran two miles in less than eight minutes, doubling up on Bannister's accomplishment. He did it again in February 1998, falling just 0.3 seconds behind his previous performance of 7:58.61. He is still the only individual to accomplish the feat. The youngest runner to ever run a"
"the race in 2:54:39, beating her previous personal best by 13 minutes and 46 seconds. Subsequently commentators Steve Cram and Brendan Foster noted that only 88 British women had run a sub-3-hour marathon during 2011. On 11 September 2016, she took part in the Great North Run to raise funds for Alzheimer's Society and Cancer Research UK. † – half marathon<br> ‡ – 5-mile race<br> ¥ – of the 13,064 women who completed the race McAndrew finished 46th After announcing their engagement in September 2004, McAndrew married property developer Paul Hardcastle twice – first in November 2004 in Huddersfield, West"