Mile run
The mile run (1,760 yards or exactly 1,609.344 metres) is a middle-distance foot race.
| Athletics Mile run | |
|---|---|
Gunder Hägg (right) defeats Arne Andersson with a world record time of 4:06.2 min in Gothenburg in 1942. | |
| World records | |
| Men | Hicham El Guerrouj 3:43.13 (1999) |
| Women | Faith Kipyegon 4:07.64 (2023) |
The history of the mile run event began in England, where it was used as a distance for gambling races. It survived track and field's switch to metric distances in the 1900s and retained its popularity, with the chase for the four-minute mile in the 1950s a high point for the race.
In spite of the roughly equivalent 1500 metres race, which is used instead of the mile at the World Championships and Olympic Games and is sometimes referred as the foremost middle-distance track event in athletics, the mile run is present in all fields of athletics, and since 1976, it is the only imperial distance for which World Athletics has on its books for official world records.
Although the mile is not featured at any major championships, the Wanamaker Mile, Dream Mile, Emsley Carr Mile and Bowerman Mile races are among the foremost annual middle-distance races.
The current mile world record holders are Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco with a time of 3:43.13 and Faith Kipyegon of Kenya with the Women's record of 4:07.64.
The record for the fastest mile ever run on any terrain is held by Craig Wheeler, who ran a downhill mile in 1993 in a time of 3:24; Wheeler's time is not an officially recognized record due to the downhill grade of the course he ran.