FIFTY years to the day Roger Bannister registered at Iffley Road in Oxford one of the greatest sporting achievements of 20th-century sport, two sets of young Guernsey track stars are bidding to run their own historic sub-four-minute mile. The record attempts will bring the curtain down on the GIAAC’s ‘Night of Records’ meet on the Foote’s Lane track.

Charlie Cottam, president of the GIAAC and coach to the middle-distance juniors who as two sets of four will attempt to break four minutes for four laps and nine metres of the track, said it would be as touch and go just as Bannister’s historic race was.

But Cottam is confident that the under-15 boys’ squad of Matt Loveridge, Michael Batiste, Daniel Carre and Danny Arblaster can match Bannister’s 3min. 59.4sec. or go quicker.

‘I think it could be as exciting as Bannister’s four-minute attempt. It’s going to be excitingly close,’ he added.

‘The under-15 boys’ 4 x 400m relay record is sure to go in the attempt,’ said Cottam of an evening when 32 club records are under serious threat.

‘I think the under-15s will certainly break the record and if they go under four minutes, will take more than 50 seconds off it.’

It has been hoped that Guernsey’s top miler, NatWest Island Games gold medallist Lee Merrien, might make his own attempt at matching Bannister’s achievement of 6 May 1954.

But Merrien, who finished eighth in the 5,000m at the British Universities’ Championships at Gates-head at the weekend, will miss the Guernsey meet which is being staged to raise funds to send young Guernsey athletes to UK competitions.

Cottam said that Merrien, who has a 1,500 best of 3min. 46sec., is capable of such a feat, but probably not quite yet.

‘You are talking around another 15sec. on top of a 1,500 and if he were to break four minutes, it would be the equivalent of a personal best of two or three seconds.’

Tomorrow’s event, which runs from 6.45pm to approximately 8pm, features a wide range of sponsored events, many of which are rarely run but exist in the club records.

The first races are mile and half-mile races for under-11s and under-9s and there will also be a senior mile later in the programme.

Entry to the Garenne Stand is free and spectators are welcome.