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They call it the Miracle Mile: the race still regarded as the greatest in Commonwealth Games history. And 72 years later in Glasgow, it finally has a worthy successor.
Rewind to 1954. In May Sir Roger Bannister had become the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. Six weeks later, the Australian John Landy lowered his mark by more than a second. Then came their epic clash in Vancouver.
“I felt it was a piece of unfinished business to be able to reproduce the performance of my sub-four-minute mile in a race,” Bannister later said. “However, at the half-mile … he was 15 yards ahead and I thought either he’s going to break a world record in 3mins 56sec or he’s going to have to slow.”
Somehow Bannister dragged himself back into it by the bell, yet Landy was still leading as they turned into the home straight. But there was to be a dramatic late twist.
Because the roar of the crowd was so great, Landy was unable to hear his pursuer, so he looked over his left shoulder. At which point Bannister attacked and flew past his great rival on his right shoulder before storming to gold in 3mins 58.8.
On Saturday night the men’s mile should provide another contest for the ages, with Scotland’s Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman facing Australia’s new superstar Cameron Myers.
Everyone knows about Kerr. Since the 28-year-old ran an astonishing 3min 42.66 to break the world mile record, there have been profiles in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and he has become joint favourite with Jude Bellingham to win the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.
Plenty of non-athletics fans will also be aware of Wightman, given that he won the world 1500m title in Eugene in 2022 while his dad, Geoff, was commentating in the stadium, and followed it up with a world silver in Tokyo in September 2025.
And while the 20-year-old Myers might be a new name to some, everyone in track and field is in awe of his talent. “I got beaten by him in 2024 in Australia,” says Wightman. “And I was like, ‘man, he’s going to be good.’ But he just kept getting better every year. He’s the future of the sport.”
How good might he be? “This is a crazy era,” says Wightman. “But we’re potentially racing against someone who’s going to be the best of all time – that’s the way I look at him.”
That is extraordinary praise given Myers was still a teenager at the start of June. But Wightman is just as effusive about Kerr’s mile world record. “It’s insane,” he says. “It’s like 54-second laps. The average person will get nowhere near running 100 metres at that pace, and I thought it was impossible to do that.
“The world record’s amazing and I’m sure that will stand for a long, long time. But the worst bit about it was I watching, thinking: ‘Christ, I’ve got to race him in a couple of weeks’ time.’”
The race tactics will be fascinating. Over 1500m this year, Kerr and Myers have run more than a second quicker than anyone else. But this is championship racing, with no pacemakers or wavelights. And that, as Kerr acknowledges, brings different challenges.
“It is very different to go from racing a clock to racing these guys,” he says. “They are some of the best milers in the world. But I thrive in a pressure environment. I’m here to show up and get a gold medal for Scotland.”
Most believe that Kerr will want a truly run race and will go to the front early if no one pushes the pace. But the slower the first two laps are, the more likely Wightman’s sprint finish will come into play.
“I pride myself on being good at champs,” says Wightman, who also ran the fifth fastest 1,000m in history last month. “I know that I couldn’t do what Josh did in that world record. But I love the fact you come to champs and it becomes both a physical and mental battle. I’d love it to be cagey, others I’m sure wouldn’t.”
The great unknown is how much Kerr’s thrilling run in London has affected him. As Wightman says, it isn’t always easy to reset after a massive high. In 2022 he won the 1500m world title only to suffer a shock defeat to Olli Hoare in the Commonwealth Games 10 days later.
And while gold is surely between the big three, Kenya’s 2019 world champion, Timothy Cheruiyot, and Wales’ Jake Heyward, who is in the shape of his life, have medal chances too.
Wightman also points out another complicating factor. While much of Britain is enjoying a heatwave, the temperature when the race starts will be only 13c and gusty.
“It’s not the stillest track and the Glasgow weather’s not the kindest,” he says, smiling. “The potential is that if you go and take it out hard you might be ending up working a lot harder than you think you are. It’s going to be a battle.”
The echoes of 1954 will be heard loud and clear in Scotstoun on Saturday night.
