Lack of Fanfare in U.S. Over Daniel Komen Breaking Eight-Minute Barrier in Two-Mile Run Does Nothing to Diminish Kenyan’s Remarkable. . . : Milestone

Last Saturday in Brussels, Daniel Komen of Kenya ran two miles so fast, most of America missed it.

His time was 7 minutes 58.61 seconds.

Two sub-four-minute miles, back to back.

Forty-three years ago, Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile to worldwide acclaim, garnering V-E Day-sized front-page headlines, as if he were Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic in track spikes.

Komen doubled that feat--and managed but a few wire-service paragraphs on the inside pages of most U.S. newspapers’ sports sections.

The lack of notice speaks loudly to the state of track and field in this country--Wake us up in time for Sydney, won’t you?--and the obscurity of the two-mile race as a modern-day international track event. World track’s governing body, the IAAF, no longer recognizes any non-metric race other the mile, turning the two-mile into a novelty rarely contested at international meets.

Still, that hasn’t diminished Komen’s accomplishment in the eyes of track historians and observers.

“What Komen did,” said Pete Cava of USA Track and Field, “was like throwing a one-hit shutout in the first game of a doubleheader and then coming out for the second game and throwing a no-hitter. It’s phenomenal.

“We’re talking about a four-minute mile followed by a sub-four-minute mile. It’s an iron man performance.”

Longtime track promoter Al Franken called Komen’s run “unbelievable. He ran what Bannister ran the first time in 1954--3:59.4--twice. This guy ran a 3:59 mile . . . and a 3:59 mile. That probably explains it to the public better than anything.”

“Anyone who says athletes are not getting better should take a look at that. One mile is grueling in itself. Then to do it again, that’s unbelievable.”

Komen, the world-record holder at 3,000 meters, had been gearing up for the eight-minute barrier for months. Last December, he told the Times of London that he had never heard of Roger Bannister but was keen on the eight-minute mark. “I want to put it in the history books,” he said.

He missed out on his most lucrative opportunity, a May 31 meet in Hengelo, the Netherlands, with $1 million at stake for the first man to break eight minutes. Komen wasn’t invited. Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie fell just short at 8:01.08.

Last Saturday in Belgium, Komen bettered Gebrselassie’s mark by 2.47 seconds--and received a $50,000 bonus for his effort. Smaller meet, smaller carrot.

But there it is, in the history books.

Komen, 21, was led out fast by several Kenyan runners, assisting his bid by setting a fast pace. After one mile, was nearly a second ahead of his target with a time of 3:59.2. From there he broke free from the pack, running the last two laps alone, spurred on by the cheers of 10,000 fans, finishing the second mile in 3:59.4.

“I had a perfect start to the race,” Komen told the Associated Press. “I was confident from the start.”

A monumental achievement--yet accompanied by only a modicum of fanfare.

Why?

Partly because of the expectancy that the eight-minute barrier would be broken this year, Cava says.

“People have been coming close,” Cava said. “ . . . Every indication was that it was going to be done this year.”

By contrast, the first sub-four-minute mile was Moby Dick, the Holy Grail. The never-ending quest, long suspected to be out of reach for human limbs.

“When Roger Bannister ran his 3:59.4, it was not just the talk of the track world, it was Page 1 news all over the world,” Stan Saplin, historical editor for Track and Field News, said. “It was unbelievable. Finally, it had been done.

“For years, great statesmen had referred to it in their speeches--’Just as no man will ever run a mile under four minutes. . . .’ It was not uncommon to hear that.”

By the early 1950s, the first sub-four-minute mile had, quite literally, become the Great Race. American Wes Santee and Australian John Landy were the milers deemed most likely to achieve the feat, so when Bannister beat them to the record it was so shocking, editors in newsrooms did double-takes as the first reports from Oxford trickled across the wire.

“From one end of the world to the other, that was front-page news,” Saplin said. “Now, we think nothing of [Komen] becoming the first to run two successive sub-four-minute miles. You’ve seen practically no press coverage.”

Cava believes it might have been different if an American--say, Bob Kennedy (the United States’ top-ranked 5,000-meter runner)--had been the first to break eight minutes. “If Kennedy had broken the record in that race, I think the reaction would have been pretty momentous,” he says.

Then too, it comes down to perception and contemporary standards, and in 1997, the two-mile is not considered as significant a middle-distance event as the 3,000 or 5,000 meters.

According to track historian Cordner Nelson, Komen’s two-mile record was “great, but not as great as his 3,000-meter record (7:20.67). He took more than four seconds off that record.”

Besides, Nelson points out, Komen’s 7:58.61 two-mile “isn’t an official record in the first place. The IAAF doesn’t recognize any English distance except a mile.”

Cava compares Komen’s achievement to Bannister’s this way:

“It’s not quite up there with the first sub-four-minute mile. That came during an age of miracles--Edmund Hillary and Mt. Everest, Jonas Salk and the vaccine for polio.

“I was 7 years old when Roger Bannister broke four minutes. It left a huge impression on me as a kid. Nothing, I think, will match that.

“In terms of accomplishment, what Komen did is like a 30-win season in baseball. I wouldn’t say it’s as significant as someone hitting .400. But it’s awesome anyway.”