The 60th anniversary of Roger Bannister´s "dream mile" was
remembered and marked all around the world, and quite rightly
so, but since I´m in the (historical) mood, I´d like to
remind anyone who has an interest or cares for such things
of the 65th anniversary of the breaking of another barrier.
Paavo Nurmi and Ville Ritola had agreed that Nurmi wouldn´t
particpate in the 10.000 meter event, which the latter won
with a new world record of 30.23.2, but Nurmi proceeded to
smash it the following month in 30.06.2 - a result he wouldn´t
come close to in the seven 10.000m races he´d run in his
career. (He did win all but one of them, though: he only
lost a race against a 10x1.000m relay team.)
The world record held for 13 years - four longer than the
mile record did before Bannister - until the next generation
of Finnish runners: first in July 1937 Ilmari Salminen ran
a 30.05.6 and then in September 1938 Taisto Mäki a 30.02.0.
The scene was set for the breaking of an important barrier,
much like the two Swedes, Arne Andersson and Gunder Hägg,
had set the scene for Bannister by breaking the mile world
record each year between 1942 and 1945 and bringing it down
from 4.06.2 to 4.01.4.
The locale was the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, the date
was Setember 17th, 1939, the runner was Taisto Mäki and
the time 29.52.6. The world record would be broken by
another Finn, Viljo Heino in August 1944 (and then five
times by the great Czech, Emil Zátopek).
To mark this anniversary there´s a "Tasto Mäki Memorial
Run" on a cinder track in Helsinki. The inaugural race
was held last year - which only goes to show that the 60th
anniversary wasn´t much remembered even in this country.
Two reasons are obvious: Taisto Mäki was but one of the
many prewar Finnish distance runners and, unfortunately
for him, his peak years passed by without any Olympic
games where true memorable glory was won in those days,
and, well, something else had come up in September 1939
that shadowed everything else that happened that autumn.
Yet, the 10.000 meters is one of the four classic track
events (100m, 400m, 1500m/mile, 10.000m), and 30 minutes
was hardly any less strong or "impossible" a barrier to
break than the four-minute-mile. Neither was the development
of the record or the approach of the milestone time by
several runners all that different from the history of
the four-minute-mile.
So, what else has made Bannister a name familiar to
many and Mäki unknown to most? Well, the post-WWII world
was extremely hungry for the story and the protagonists
didn´t come from a small, unimportant country:-)
Anders (who intends to take a leave of absence from
rec.running for, em, family reasons...)