It was dubbed the "Mile of the Century".
The 1954 British Empire Games final at Vancouver is probably the greatest mile race ever run.
It was the year of the first sub-minute mile.
England's Roger Bannister was the first to crack the barrier when he ran 3min 59.4sec at Iffley Road, Oxford, in May and was followed six weeks later by John Landy, of Australia, who reduced the world record to 3min 58sec at Turku, Finland.
The world had waited in anticipation for the breakthrough after Swedish runners Gunder Haag and Arne Andersson came close in the 1940s.
Anderson ran 4min 01.6sec at Malmo in 1944 and Haag reduced it to 4min 01.4sec at the same venue a year later.
The next nine years were filled with disappointment but the athletics pundits knew it was near when Bannister, Landy and American Wes Santee came close.
The race at Vancouver was the first time that two sub-four-minute milers went head-to-head against each other.
They came from different backgrounds, trained in different ways, and had a different approach to racing.
Landy was the front-runner, while Bannister preferred to follow the pace and then use his long stride to burst for home down the final straight.
Their coaches had different philosophies to training and were antagonistic to each other.
Bannister was coached by Austrian Franz Stampfl, who believed in interval training on the track and emphasised work of quality instead of quantity.
Landy was coached by the eccentric Percy Cerutty who in his 50s had moved away from conformist city life in Melbourne to return to nature and live by the beach at Portsea.
City life had depleted his energy and he lifted weights, ran on sandhills and ate natural food to restore his health.
Landy rarely trained on the track and most of his training was in natural surroundings on sandhills and over dirt tracks.
There were two New Zealanders, Bill Baillie and Murray Halberg, in the eight-strong field for the final at Vancouver.
Landy took the lead after 300m and led Bannister through the first 402m in 58.2sec and was still in front when he passed halfway in 1min 58.2sec.
The gap was closing when Landy took the bell at 2min 54.4sec and Bannister was on his shoulder entering the straight and then unleashed a ferocious sprint to win the gold medal in 3min 58.8sec from Landy (3min 59.6sec) and Rich Ferguson (Canada, 4min 04.6sec).
It was the first time two runners had broken the four-minute mile in the same race.
• Sir Roger Bannister became a distinguished neurologist and Master of Pembroke College, Oxford, before retiring in 2001.
John Landy was later the 26th Governor of Victoria and retired from the position after serving a five-year term in 2006.