Editing Roger Bannister (section)

===Early running career===
Bannister was inspired by miler [[Sydney Wooderson]]'s comeback in 1945. Eight years after setting the mile record and seeing it surpassed during the war years by the Swedish runners [[Arne Andersson]] and [[Gunder Hägg]], Wooderson regained his old form and challenged Andersson over the distance in several races.<ref name=":0" /> Wooderson lost to Andersson but set a British record of 4:04.2 in [[Gothenburg]] on 9 September.

Like Wooderson, Bannister would ultimately set a mile record, see it broken, and then set a new personal best slower than the new record.

Bannister started his running career at [[Oxford]] in the autumn of 1946 at the age of 17.<ref name=":9" /> He had never worn running spikes previously or run on a track.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news|url=http://www.racingpast.ca/john_contents.php?id=91|title=Racing Past – Roger Bannister|work=Racing Past|access-date=6 March 2018}}</ref> His training was light, even compared to the standards of the day, but he showed promise in running a mile in 1947 in 4:24.6 on only three weekly half-hour training sessions.<ref name=":6" />

He was selected as an Olympic "possible" in 1948 but declined as he felt he was not ready to compete at that level.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":0" /> However, he was further inspired to become a great miler by watching the [[1948 Summer Olympics|1948 Olympics]]. He set his training goals on the [[1952 Summer Olympics|1952 Olympics]] in Helsinki.<ref name=":0" />

In 1949, he improved in the {{convert|880|yd|m|2|adj=on}} run to 1:52.7 and won several mile races in 4:11.<ref name=":6" /> Then, after a period of six weeks with no training, he came in third at [[White City Stadium|White City]] in 4:14.2.

The year 1950 saw more improvements as he finished a relatively slow 4:13-mile on 1 July with an impressive 57.5 last quarter. Then, he ran the [[Amateur Athletic Association|AAA]] 880 in 1:52.1, losing to [[Arthur Wint]], and then ran 1:50.7 for the 800 m at the European Championships on 26 August,<ref name="All-Athletics" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bannister |first=Roger |url= |title=Twin Tracks: The Autobiography |date=2014 |publisher=Biteback Publishing |isbn=978-1-84954-738-3 |pages=v |language=en |chapter=6. International running career: Oxford to Helsinki |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hOuAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT60}}</ref> placing third.<ref name="eaa_01">{{Cite web|url=http://www.european-athletics.org/mm/Document/EventsMeetings/General/01/27/31/44/StatisticsHandbookZ%C3%BCrich2014_Neutral.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808114554/http://www.european-athletics.org/mm/Document/EventsMeetings/General/01/27/31/44/StatisticsHandbookZ%C3%BCrich2014_Neutral.pdf |archive-date=2014-08-08 |url-status=live|title=European Athletics Championships Zürich 2014 – STATISTICS HANDBOOK|publisher=[[European Athletics Association]]|pages=372|access-date=6 March 2018}}</ref> Chastened by this lack of success, Bannister started to train harder and more seriously.

His increased attention to training paid quick dividends, as he won a mile race in 4:09.9 on 30 December. Then in 1951 at the [[Penn Relays]], Bannister broke away from the pack with a 56.7 final lap, finishing in 4:08.3. Then, in his biggest test to date, he won a mile race on 14 July in 4:07.8 at the [[Amateur Athletic Association|AAA]] Championships at White City before 47,000 people. The time set a meet record and he defeated defending champion [[Bill Nankeville]] in the process.

Bannister suffered defeat, however, when [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]'s Andrija Otenhajmer, aware of Bannister's final-lap kick, took a 1500 m race in [[Belgrade]] 25 August out at near-record pace, forcing Bannister to close the gap by the bell lap. Otenhajmer won in 3:47.0, though Bannister set a personal best finishing second in 3:48.4. Bannister was no longer seen as invincible.

His training was a very modern individualised mixture of [[interval training]] influenced by coach [[Franz Stampfl]] with elements of block [[Sports periodization|periodisation]], [[fell running]] and anaerobic elements of training which were later perfected by [[Arthur Lydiard]].<ref>{{cite journal|title=Training Theory and Why Roger Bannister was the First Four Minute Miler |first=Arnd  |last=Krüger |author-link=Arnd Krüger |journal=Sport in History |year=2006 |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=305–324 |issn=1746-0271|doi=10.1080/17460260600786955 |s2cid=143673381 }}</ref>
[[File:Sir Roger Bannister plaque in Paddington Recreation Ground.jpg|thumb|Blue plaque at the Paddington Recreation Ground pavilion]]
From 1951 to 1954, Bannister trained at the track at [[Paddington Recreation Ground]] in [[Maida Vale]] while he was a medical student at the nearby [[St Mary's Hospital, London|St Mary's Hospital]]. There are two Bannister plaques at the pavilion, both unveiled by him on 10 September 2000; a circular [[blue plaque]] and a rectangular [[Commemorative plaque|historic plaque]] containing additional information.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/sir-roger-bannister|title=Plaque: Sir Roger Bannister|website=londonremembers.com|access-date=23 July 2018}}</ref> According to the latter, Bannister was able to train for just an hour each day due to his medical studies.