Athletics: I beat Bannister to the first four-minute mile, says Sheffield pensioner

The most famous feat in athletics history is being challenged by a bespectacled Sheffield pensioner.

Fifty years after Sir Roger Bannister ran what the record books say is the first mile in under four minutes, Ken Wood, a successful but never well-known athlete from times gone by, has claimed that he broke the magical barrier 29 days before.

Bannister's record was set on Oxford's Iffley Road track on 6 May 1954. But, in an exclusive interview with The Independent on Sunday, 73-year-old Mr Wood asserts that he ran a sub-four-minute mile on 7 April. Mr Wood, who went on to represent Britain at the 1956 Olympics, says he ran a mile in 3 minutes 59.2 seconds during a Wednesday afternoon training session at the University of Sheffield sports ground.

Mr Wood, who at the time was a 23-year-old employee at a local paint firm, said: "Mine was only a training run, but it was a definite sub-four-minutes, no question. I thought it was just another time. The lads who were with me made a little bit of fuss about it, but I never really mentioned it to anybody."

The man who held the stopwatch on that windy April day, Dr Roy Koerner, has been tracked down by the IoS to verify Mr Wood's claim. He said: "In those days, class distinction played a part. It was one thing for Bannister and Chris Chataway to do great things, but Ken Wood? I can remember hearing radio commentaries, and the BBC guy was grudging to Ken - how could the likes of Ken beat the greatest? But he damned well did."

In contrast to Roger Bannister, who became a household name, chairman of the Sports Council and later a knight of the realm, Mr Wood never achieved the fame his talent undoubtedly warranted. He not only represented Britain at the Olympics, but won the famous Emsley Carr Mile, an event won by Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett among other household names, for a record four times. But unlike the knighted Bannister, Mr Wood passed from the glories of the track to work for the same Sheffield painting firm until he retired.

Next month, Sir Roger's autobiography, The First Four Minutes, will be re-released. Three other books on the run will be published, and a BBC television documentary will be screened. Meanwhile, Ken Wood will, as he has been for most of the past 50 years, be at home in Sheffield with his thoughts of what might have been.