<P> Breaking the four - minute barrier was first achieved on 6 May 1954 at Oxford University's Iffley Road Track, by Englishman Roger Bannister, with the help of fellow - runners as pacemakers . </P> <P> Two months later, during the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games hosted in Vancouver, B.C., two competing runners, Australia's John Landy and Bannister, ran the distance of one mile in under four minutes . The race's end is memorialised in a statue of the two (with Landy glancing over his shoulder, thus losing the race) placed in front of the Pacific National Exhibition entrance plaza . </P> <P> New Zealand's John Walker, the first man to run the mile under 3: 50, managed to run 135 sub-four - minute miles during his career (during which he was the first person to run over 100 sub-four - minute miles), and American Steve Scott has run the most sub-four - minute miles, with 136 . Algeria's Noureddine Morceli was the first under 3: 45 . Currently, the mile record is held by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj, who ran a time of 3: 43.13 in Rome in 1999 . </P> <P> In 1964, America's Jim Ryun became the first high - school runner to break four minutes for the mile, running 3: 59.0 as a junior and a then American record 3: 55.3 as a senior in 1965 . Tim Danielson (1966) and Marty Liquori (1967) also came in under four minutes, but Ryun's high - school record stood until Alan Webb ran 3: 53.43 in 2001 . Ten years later, in 2011, Lukas Verzbicas became the fifth high - schooler under four minutes . In 2015, Matthew Maton and Grant Fisher became the sixth and seventh high - schoolers to break four minutes, both running 3: 59.38 about a month apart . Webb was the first high schooler to run sub-4 indoors, running 3: 59.86 in early 2001 . On 6 February 2016, Andrew Hunter significantly improved upon Webb's mark, running 3: 58.25 on the same New York Armory track and 3: 57.81 two weeks later . Hunter achieved the 4 minute mile mark outdoors later in the season at the Prefontaine Classic . At that same meet Michael Slagowski ran his second sub-4 minute of the season . Reed Brown and Sam Mansfield both dipped under the barrier on June 1st, 2017, running the 4th fastest high school mile times ever recorded in a race: 3: 59.30 . </P>

First new zealander to run a mile in under four minutes