Roger Bannister 'four minute mile' shoes smash estimate

The shoes Sir Roger Bannister wore to break the four minute mile barrier have sold for £266,500 ($411,394).

They beat an estimate of £50,000 ($71,000) by 433% in the September 10 Out of the Ordinary sale at Christie's London.

Roger Bannister shoes
Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile in 1954

Bannister became the first man to run a mile in under four minutes in Oxford in 1954 - a feat that made him an international sporting celebrity.

Bannister had the shoes designed to be extremely light. He explained: "I could see there was an advantage in having the shoe as light as possible.

"The leather is extremely thin and the spikes are unusually thin, as I used a grindstone to make them even thinner.

"These shoes are the last tangible link I have with the four-minute mile. All my trophies are now on display at Pembroke College Oxford, where I was Master.

"They served me great purpose, I'm grateful to them. I think it's the right time to part with them and I plan to give part of the proceeds to the Autonomic Charitable Trust (ACT) which encourages the area of neurological research to which I have devoted most of my life."

A stopwatch used to time his run made £20,000 ($31,077) in May of this year.

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