JUST 23 days after Roger Bannister ran the world�s first sub-four-minute mile, a modest Englishwoman was creating history of her own by becoming the first woman to run the mile in under five minutes.
On a cinder track at the then home of Birmingham�s Birchfield Harriers, during the Midland Counties Women�s Athletics Championships, a 21-year-old called Diane Leather recorded a ground-breaking time of 4min 59.6sec. Despite being the fastest time ever run, it was never ratified as a women�s world record because the mile was not recognised as women�s event.