Milers will not go much faster, says Landy

Press, 19 August 1985, Page 32

Milers will not go much faster, says Landy

NZPA-AP Toronto John Landy, the Australian runner who watched Britain’s Roger Bannister race past him to victory 31 years ago in a battle of the first sub-four minute milers, says the mile will not be run much faster than it is now. “The record in the next couple of years might be lowered by a second or two from Briton Steve Cram’s current mark of 3:46.31, but it probably won’t go more than several seconds below that,” he said.

“I’m not one of the optimists who say a 3:30 mile is possible,” said Landy, aged 55, an honorary chairman of the inaugural Masters Games. “Whenever you get two or three top performers in the mile at the same time—like Cram, the Moroccan Said Aouita and Sebastian Coe—that’s when you are going to have records,” he said. Landy, the second man to break the 4-minute barrier, attributes improvements in exercise physiology for the lowering of the record since he

and Bannister competed on August 9, 1954, in the Empire Games, at Vancouver, and produced the first double sub-four-minute finish. In that race Landy was caught looking over his shoulder as Bannister flashed past to win in 3:58.8, just edging his rival. “The whole thing is finding the right balance between speed and stamina,” Landy said. “We were just on the edge of science, just beginning to understand the things that are well understood now.”