Fittingly, it was four runners again who broke Roger Bannister’s four minute mark in the BMC Bannister Miles 2025, the same number that did so last year. The event has been running every year since 2012, other than a brief stint in the virtual world in 2020, as some of the best mile runners across the country gather at Iffley Road athletics track where it all started.
The event is divided into two – elite runners take to the track to test their times, whereas anyone can pay £15 to run a mile that starts on St. Aldates, goes the length of the High Street, and ends on Iffley Road in front of the sports centre. Only a few members of OUAC were registered for the elite races at the track as entrants for the men’s race needed to have a 4:40 mile time already, 5:40 for the women’s equivalent. World Championship Points were on offer, and while no members of OUAC walked away with any of those points, or any prize money for that matter, there were some seriously impressive times put up.
Alex Gruen and Nick Whittaker managed to qualify for the Men’s A Final, in which they ran 4:04.11 and 4:05.29 respectively, which handed the former a Season’s Best and the latter a Personal Best, part of the 70% that achieved a PB on track yesterday. The A Final saw four runners break four minutes however, so neither Gruen nor Whittaker’s time was quite enough to take home the victory. Joe Wigfield of Wirral/St. Mary’s University/Liverpool Harriers won the race in cinematic fashion, as his 3:56.64 ensured he didn’t need to jostle for any position on the final straight. The other sub-four milers were Jacob Cann, Harry Wakefield and Tiarnan Crorken. In doing so, the latter of these three became the first man ever to achieve the sub-four minute feat twice at Iffley Road, having done so last year as well. Unfortunately, there was no OUAC representation in the Women’s A Final, but that’s perhaps just as well after Holly Dixon stormed to a three-and-a-half second victory over her competitors, coming over the line in 4:40.05.
Congratulations to all of those representing OUAC on track, the list of whom include not only Alex Gruen and Nick Whittaker, but also Chris Parker, Andrew Shaw, Levi Berger, Benjy McCartney, Ethan McColgan, Matt Luney, Klara Hatinova and Sophie Glencross. All OUAC runners achieved either a PB or SB. Only Glencross, Gruen and Shaw achieved an SB, which means that all seven other runners lodged a PB.
As well as the track races that run across the length of the afternoon and into the early evening, the road race took over the High Street in the morning. OUAC dominated the men’s road race, as Fred Beale and Jason Barrett took home first and second, while another six OUAC representatives featured in the remainder of the top 20. Beale and Barrett both went sub 4:40 with times of 4:34.9 and 4:39.4. The women’s road race was not quite so successful, but a strong 5:45.7 from Tamsin Sangster ensured that there was at least some Oxford representation in the top five.
One of the more impressive times of the day came from Brasenose College’s Senior Fellow in Politics. Alexander Betts dominated the men’s V40 category with a time of 5:01.7, good enough for top 20 across all categories, and beating out the next fastest V40 by a good eleven seconds.
