Roger Bannister Running Track - History

History

In 1867, Oxford University built a grass track 536 metres (0.333 mi) round at Marston Road Sports Grounds. It was built on clay and often flooded, or became unusable due to the wet conditions. The University later decided to build a new running track at Iffley Road. Building work began on the one-third of a mile (536 metres) track in September 1876 by the contractor Mr Hobdell. The ground was leased from Christ Church. The building work was finished two days before the first meeting, on 29–30 November 1876.

In the 1890s, Oxford Union RFC acquired Iffley Road. The man behind this was the Honorary Treasurer C.N. Jackson, known as 'The Jacker', who believed in University sports clubs having their own ground. The site was purchased from Christ Church College for £1,000. The New Football Ground, as it was known, was shared with Oxford University Football club until 1921, before they moved to the adjacent site inside the athletics track, where they still play today.

In 1948, Roger Bannister, then a 19-year-old student at Exeter College, was elected President of Oxford University’s Athletic Club. He made it a prime aim of his presidency to replace the bumpy, uneven track with a new six-lane 440 yards (400 m) track. Two years later, in 1950, the new 440 yards track was refurbished and was opened by the John Lowe, the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Since 1950, the running track has been modernised on several occasions. In 1976 work started on the track to convert the track to a synthetic track, and it opened on 4 May 1977, and was again resurfaced in 1989.

By 2005, the track again was of poor quality. Two years later Lord Coe, the Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, opened the newly refurbished running track on 10 May 2007. The running track was renamed the Roger Bannister running track. Coe said "It is fitting that the track at Iffley Road where Roger (Bannister) set this momentous record should be re-named in his honour. I hope that many other records will be set at this newly refurbished track and that some young athletes that run here will go on to compete in the London 2012 Games."

Later, Bannister started a series of one-mile races by Oxford University students to mark the event. The new track has been awarded UK Athletics certification, which allows race meetings to be held and be eligible for any record attempts by athletes.