sydney wooderson

The unlikely running champion who inspired Roger Bannister and many other greats, Sydney Wooderson, MBE, died over the holiday period aged 91.

Wooderson, who stood 5ft 6 and weighed under 9 stone, was born in 1914 and ran 4:30 for the mile when still a schoolboy, going on to set a world mile record of 4:6.4 in 1938, and world records at 800m and 880 yards in a career spoilt by injury and war.

Steven Downes writes in the Independent:

"If someone were to point out Sydney Wooderson to you on the running track and tell you he was the athlete who had run a mile more quickly than any other human being, you just wouldn't believe it.