14 hours ago
Faith Kipyegon fails in bid to become ‘female Roger Bannister'
Even with a pair of super bouncy Nike spikes, a race suit boasting something they call 'aeronodes', a team of male pacemakers and a track far quicker than the old cinder oval at Oxford's Iffley Road, Roger Bannister proved well beyond Faith Kipyegon's reach in Paris on Thursday evening.
A first sub-four minute mile for a woman was always an ambitious target, when Kipyegon's own official world record — a time almost five seconds faster than any other female in history — stands at 4:07.64. And, for now at least anyway, Bannister's biological advantages, as well as the assistance he received from three pacemakers and a grindstone to reduce the weight of the metal spikes in his lightweight leather shoes, is not yet something even the finest female middle-distance runner in history can match.
