Few sporting feats will ever capture the public imagination in quite the same way. Some enthusiasts have even ranked Bannister's race alongside scaling Everest or landing on the moon, such was his triumph in conquering man's physical limits.

The anniversary of Bannister's record time of three minutes 59.4 seconds on May 6 1954 promises fresh accolades for the retired neurologist, who was knighted in 1975.

But one man who will be slightly bemused by all the fuss is former middle distance runner Ken Wood -- not only because he has run a sub-four-minute mile himself but because he says he did it 29 days before Bannister.

"It was April 7 1954, at Sheffield University's track. It was a training run -- it wouldn't count you see but it was a definite sub-four minutes," the 73-year-old grandfather recalls.

Wood says he clocked three minutes 59.2 seconds that day in a race with two others, one of whom was Welsh international Peter Adams. Student Roy Koerner timed them.

"I did a lot of fast times at that time, training for the Olympics and things," says Wood. "But this one particularly I remember."

Remarkably, Wood was not overwhelmed by his achievement -- perhaps, he thinks, because he had not been aiming to beat the four-minute mark.

"I just felt it was a normal training run. I was always exceptionally strong as regards training times. I didn't attach a lot of importance to it afterwards to be honest."

Nor did he feel he had pushed himself to the limit.

"It was a hard training run but I was used to that kind of thing -- I felt a bit tired."

NO BITTERNESS

So did he think 'I have done that too' as news of Bannister's achievement made headlines around the world?

"Well I did actually," says Wood. "There had been a lot of publicity about the (sub-four-minute mile) in previous years, people trying to beat it. And then the typical razzmatazz when (Bannister) did do it.

"I didn't begrudge him," Wood adds. In fact, Wood suggests that there were others who probably ran a sub-four-minute mile in training before he did. But he stresses that he does not want to denigrate Bannister's efforts.

Wood displays no hint of bitterness towards his more famous middle-distance rival. But he is somewhat surprised that the first sub-four-minute mile continues to strike such a chord with the public.

"I think possibly a bit too much importance has been given to it over the years. It is just another time, isn't it?

"I know a lot of Swedish runners had been trying to beat it in the 1940s but they never did. They just missed it. Probably if they had had stronger opposition, they would have got it then."

Wood, who has lived all his live in the northern English town of Sheffield, met Bannister once or twice but never raced against him. They came close, however, in the latter half of 1954.

"Bannister came back from Vancouver where he won the Empire Games. He was due to run at Edinburgh, and I was down too, but he just didn't turn up.

"I don't know whether he'd heard about me being on form or not," Wood jokes.

"That year I'd won three or four big races at White City in London including the Emsley Carr Mile. Mind you it might just have been the fact that he had probably had enough travelling."

ELUSIVE GLORY

Recalling his unsung achievement puts Wood in mind of another occasion when sporting glory eluded him. At an indoor mile race at Manchester's Belle Vue in 1957, Wood ran 13 laps of 128 yards in just three minutes 37.4 seconds.

"Unfortunately the officials miscounted the laps and we did a lap short. We should have done 14 but we only did about 13. It would have been a world record at that time," he says.

"That is how things go of course. You get this luck and bad luck in athletic events. All in all, I'm never complaining because I have won over 20 international races, I got a two-mile world record and I won the Emsley Carr Mile four times."

The Emsley Carr Mile was introduced at London's White City in 1953 specifically to encourage the achievement of the first sub-four-minute mile, although Bannister achieved his feat at Oxford University. Wood won the race in 1954, 1955, 1957 and 1961 with times of just over four minutes.

The self-coached runner eventually achieved a sub-four-minute mile in a race in June 1957 at White City.

So how does he expect to feel in May as the public relive Bannister's glory?

Wood chuckles. "It won't bother me. It is just one of those things. It is all in the past, it is all history but they'll probably make a bit too much of it anyhow won't they?"