Legendary Australian athlete John Landy dies aged 91

Legendary Australian athlete John Landy, renowned for his rivalry with Britain’s Roger Bannister in the 1950s, has died aged 91.

 

Landy became the second athlete in history, after Bannister, to run a four-minute mile.

 

The former mile and 1500m world record holder won Olympic bronze in the 1500m at the Melbourne Games in 1956.

 

“Our world is poorer without John Landy in it,” said World Athletics president Lord Coe.

 

During his athletics career, Melbourne-born Landy sought to make history and battled with Bannister to become the first person to beat the four-minute mile barrier.

 

Bannister pipped the Australian to the historic achievement, clocking three hours 59.

 

4 minutes in Oxford in May 1954.

 

But Landy went better 46 days later in Finland with a time of 3:58.

 

0 – a record that stood for the next three years.

 

“He lit the spark that led to the legendary chase for the four-minute mile between 1952 and 1954 and was one of the main protagonists in that quest,” added Coe, himself a two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist.