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Timeline - Breaking the 4-minute mile
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Interact with the timeline to see key dates relating to getting the sporting edge – Breaking the 4-minute mile. Pause the mouse pointer over any of the boxes to see additional information about each event. Find out more about the Sporting Edge by browsing or searching the hub.
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31 May 1913
4min 14sec
American John Paul Jones holds the first officially recorded male amateur world record for the mile (1,607.344 metres).
15 July 1933
4min 07.6sec
New Zealander Jack Lovelock holds the record for a while in the 1930s.
July 1942
4min 01.3sec
Swedish Gunder Hagg holds the official world record by the end of the 1940s.
6 May 1954
3min 59.4sec
Englishman Roger Bannister runs the first amateur sub-four minute mile.
27 January 1962
3min 54.4sec
New Zealander Peter Snell holds the record for a while during the 1960s.
12 August 1975
3min 49.4sec
New Zealander John Walker breaks the world mile record in the 1970s. His was the first mile run under 3 min 50 sec.
27 July 1985
3min 46.32sec
Englishman Steve Cram holds the world record by the end of the 1980s.
14 August 1996
4min 12.56sec
Russian Svetlana Masterkova breaks the female world record for the mile. No woman has yet run a sub-four minute mile.
7 July 1999
3min 43.13sec
Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj breaks the world record in Rome in the 1990s. He still holds the record.
The future
You decide
The 4 minute barrier has been lowered by only 17 seconds over the last 50 years. What will it take to keep breaking the record?
