{"id":569064,"date":"2026-07-31T18:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569064\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T18:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T18:20:09","slug":"echoes-of-1954-as-kerr-wightman-and-rising-star-myers-face-off-in-mile-race-commonwealth-games-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/569064\/","title":{"rendered":"Echoes of 1954 as Kerr, Wightman and rising star Myers face off in mile race | Commonwealth Games 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

They call it the Miracle Mile: the race still regarded as the greatest in Commonwealth Games<\/a> history. And 72 years later in Glasgow, it finally has a worthy successor.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt it was a piece of unfinished\u00a0business to be able to reproduce the performance of my sub-four-minute mile in a race,\u201d Bannister later said. \u201cHowever, at the half-mile \u2026 he was 15 yards ahead and I thought either he\u2019s going to break a world record in 3min 56sec or he\u2019s going to have to\u00a0slow.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 3:58.8.<\/p>\n

On Saturday night the men\u2019s mile should provide another contest for the ages, with Scotland\u2019s Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman facing Australia\u2019s new superstar Cameron Myers.<\/p>\n

Everyone knows about Kerr. Since the 28-year-old ran an astonishing 3:42.66 to break the world mile record<\/a>, 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\u2019s Sports Personality of the Year.<\/p>\n

Roger Bannister\u2019s breaking of the four-minute mile in May 1954 kickstarted a compelling summer that culminated in his Commonwealth Games triumph. Photograph: AP<\/p>\n

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,<\/a> and followed it up with a world silver in Tokyo<\/a> in\u00a0September\u00a02025.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI got beaten by him in 2024 in Australia,\u201d says Wightman. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018man, he\u2019s going to be good.\u2019 But he just kept getting better every year. He\u2019s the future of\u00a0the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

How good might he be? \u201cThis is a crazy era,\u201d says Wightman. \u201cBut\u00a0we\u2019re potentially racing against someone who\u2019s going to be the best of all time \u2013 that\u2019s the way I\u00a0look at him.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is extraordinary praise given Myers was still a teenager at the start of June. But Wightman is just as effusive about Kerr\u2019s mile world record. \u201cIt\u2019s insane,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world record\u2019s amazing and I\u2019m sure that will stand for a long, long time. But the worst bit about it was I watching, thinking: \u2018Christ, I\u2019ve got to race him in a couple of weeks\u2019 time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron Myers (right) in the mile heats. He has been hailed as \u2018the future of the sport\u2019 by Jake Wightman. Photograph: Joel Carrett\/AAP<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very different to go from racing a clock to racing these guys,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are some of the best milers in the world. But I thrive in a pressure environment. I\u2019m here to show up and get a gold medal for\u00a0Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s sprint finish will come into play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pride myself on being good at champs,\u201d says Wightman, who also ran the fifth fastest 1000m in history last month. \u201cI know that I couldn\u2019t 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\u2019d love it to be cagey, others I\u2019m sure wouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jake Wightman seals his famous 1500m gold in 2022. \u2018I pride myself on being good at champs,\u2019 he says. Photograph: Adam War\u017cawa\/EPA<\/p>\n

The great unknown is how much Kerr\u2019s thrilling run in London has affected him. As Wightman says, it isn\u2019t 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\u00a0days\u00a0later.<\/p>\n

And while gold is surely between the big three, Kenya\u2019s 2019 world champion, Timothy Cheruiyot, and Wales\u2019 Jake Heyward, who is in the shape of his life, have medal chances too.<\/p>\n

Wightman also points out another complicating factor. While much of Britain is enjoying a\u00a0heatwave, the temperature when\u00a0the race starts will be only 13C\u00a0and gusty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the stillest track and the Glasgow weather\u2019s not the kindest,\u201d he says, smiling. \u201cThe 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\u2019s going to be a battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The echoes of 1954 will be\u00a0heard\u00a0loud and clear in Scotstoun on Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They call it the Miracle Mile: the race still regarded as the greatest in Commonwealth Games history. And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-569064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}