When Roger Bannister destroyed the four-minute mile barrier on 6 May 1954, he would have never imagined that nearly 70 years later, one man will have matched his record every year for 20 years in a row.
New Zealand’s Nick Willis is the man who has just achieved that seemingly impossible feat. On 29 January, Willis ran the Wanamaker Mile race in 3:59.71 at the Millrose Games in New York.
This result, which Willis called ‘the hardest sub-four he’s ever run’, meant he’s run a mile under four minutes every year for the past two decades.
Willis ran his first sub-four-minute mile (3:58.15) aged 20 in 2003 for the University of Michigan at the Notre Dame Meyo Indoor Invitational in Indiana. He joked on his Instagram that it was so long ago that it was ‘in black and white’. The following year he ran 3:53.51 at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon, and from then the ball was rolling and he began clocking up year after year of sub-four-minute miles.
As well as representing his country at five Olympic Games, and taking home 1,500m silver in 2008 and bronze in 2016, the year 2014 was a notable one for Willis as he recorded his mile PB, going under 3:50 to record a time of 3:49.83.
In a recent video ‘The Midnight Mile’ documenting his 20-year quest, the 38-year-old Tracksmith athlete reflected on running the iconic distance, saying, ‘There’s something about running 4 minutes. It became a destiny for me once I discovered how to put one foot in front of the other. I didn’t have a choice which event to pick because New Zealand has such a strong history in the mile.’ This is partly in reference to fellow New Zealander John Walker, who held the record for the longest consecutive number of years (19), running a sub-four-minute mile from 1973-1990.
The question now is: will Willis go for 25 years?
Nick's successive years of sub-4-minute miles:
3:58.15 4 h1 Notre Dame, IN Meyo Invitational 07-Feb-2003
3:53.51 2 Eugene, OR Bowerman Mile 19-Jun-2004
3:53.43 11 Oslo Bislett Games 29-Jul-2005
3:52.75 1 Wanganui 11-Feb-2006
3:55.09 4 New York, NY Reebok Grand Prix 02-Jun-2007
3:50.66 2 Eugene, OR Bowerman Mile 08-Jun-2008
3:53.54 1 Boston, MA 07-Feb-2009
3:55.26i 1 Boston, MA Reebok Indoor Games 06-Feb-2010
3:51.95 10 Eugene, OR Bowerman Mile 04-Jun-2011
3:51.77 7 Eugene, OR Bowerman Mile 02-Jun-2012
3:55.70 1 Des Moines, IA Drake Relays 27-Apr-2013
3:49.83 2 Oslo Bislett Games 11-Jun-2014
3:51.46. 2 New York, NY Wanamaker Mile 14-Feb-2015
3:51.06i 2 New York, NY Wanamaker Mile 20-Feb-2016
3:56.41 2 Huntington, NY Long Island Mile 06-Sep-2017
3:56.77 5 Birmingham Emsley Carr Mile 18-Aug-2018
3:55.45 9 London Emsley Carr Mile 21-Jul-2019
3:56.72i 5 New York, NY Wanamaker Mile 08-Feb-2020
3:58.63 2 Clermont, FL Orange Winter Classic 19-Jan-2021
3:59.71 New York, Millrose Games 29-Jan-2022
