Ken Wood (athlete)

Wood competed with the Sheffield United Harriers athletic club. Between 1954 and 1961 he won the Emsley Carr Mile a record four times. In this period he was selected to run for Great Britain in the 1956 Olympic 1500 metres finishing ninth in the final.^[2]

Wood became the British 1 mile champion after winning the British AAA Championships title at the 1956 AAA Championships^[3] and 1959 AAA Championships.^[4][5]

In May 1955 Wood finished second in a two-mile race behind Sándor Iharos both breaking the world two mile outdoor record. Woods time being 8:34.8.^[6]

He became the fourteenth athlete (the fifth from the UK) to officially run a Four-minute mile, achieving a time of 3:59.3 on 19 July 1957.^[7] He in fact finished fourth behind Derek Ibbotson, who set a new British record, Ron Delany and Stanislav Jungwirth.^[8][9]

On the 50th anniversary of Roger Bannister's first Four-minute mile, Wood claimed he had previously run under four minutes on 7 April 1954.^[10][11] This unofficial run being timed by explorer and then Sheffield University student Roy Koerner.

Wood died in September 2008.^[12]