Did Roger Bannister cheat?

[Tim Downie]

Did anyone else hear the bit on the Today program this
morning about how Roger Bannister legitamised "cheating" in
athletics by his use of pace makers?

Some interesting arguments for and against from Pat Butcher
and Seb Coe. I think I side with the "againsts" apart from
set time trials.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today5_pa-
cemakers_20040505.ram

Tim

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[Donovan Rebbech]

In article <c7ajj8$1io0m$1@ID-81538.news.uni-berlin.de>, Tim Downie wrote:
> Did anyone else hear the bit on the Today program this
> morning about how Roger Bannister legitamised "cheating"
> in athletics by his use of pace makers?

One thing to consider is that Bannister was basically
running the race as a time trial -- the pace makers were not
a tactical tool for winning the race, they were a tactical
tool for setting a record. There is no way he would have
tried this against Landy (it would have played to Landy's
strengths) In races, Bannister was quite content to sit back
and let the race go slowly then unleash a fast tick about
300m from the finish line. He nearly always ran a slow start
and rarely ran even-paced races.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi http://pegasus.rutgers.edu/~elflord/