“Tim Butt will be the first British teenager to break the four minute mile.”/The Evening Post 1971 (Steve Ovett became the first in 1974). In 1971 Tim became Southern Counties Youth U18 800 meters champion in a PB and Championship record 1:55.8 at Crystal Palace, London. Steve Ovett was fifth in 2:00.9. In the 1973 Southern Counties U20 1500, Tim was defending champion, as Steve Ovett won the title. In his last race before becoming European Junior U20 800 meters champion, Steve won a Southern Counties Representative 1500 metres at Crystal Palace in 3:55. Tim was second in 3:57. It was Butt/Ovett before it was Coe/Ovett! Tim competed in twelve English Schools Championships - six Track & Field and six Cross Country (1968 - 1974). He took silver in the 1972 U/20 1500 metres. He was British Junior 1500 metres champion in 1972 at the AAA Indoor Championships, equalling Dave Moorcroft's Championship Best Performance of 3:55.8, and setting a UK All-Time Indoor Youth (U/18) record. In the last 40 years the record has only been broken once, by Spencer Newport in 1983, with 3:55.4. Sebastian Coe, 18, broke the CBP with 3:54.4 when he won the title in 1975. The '72 race included 1971 English Schools U/17 1500 metres champion Andy Barnett and U/20 English Schools 1500 metres runner-up Charlie Spedding, who took bronze in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic marathon. On September 20 1970, two days after Jimi Hendrix died and the day after the first Glastonbury Festival, Tim set a European and UK All-Time age 15 mile record of 4:17.8 in a British Milers Club race in Harlow. The split time at 1500 metres was 3:59.8, making him one of the youngest runners ever to break four minutes for the 1500. Jim Ryun was voted the greatest high school athlete ever (in any sport), in front of Tiger Woods and LeBron James. He was the first high school athlete to break four minutes for the mile, the world’s youngest at 17. Five days before his sixteenth birthday, he set a World age record of 4:19.7. I beat this by two seconds. In the last decade (2001 - 2011) only one U/17 athlete has run a faster mile, James Lamswood, 16, 4:10.94 (2011) 5th UK All - Time. Mo Farah, 16, ran 4:12.21 at Crystal Palace in 1999, 8th UK All - Time. There is no unit of measurement in the world that holds as much mystique and history as the mile - and no event in track and field that has sparked as much enthusiasm and folklore. Sydney Wooderson (1914-2006), who set a mile World record of 4:06.4 at London's Motspur Park in 1937, became the first British schoolboy to break 4:30 for the mile at 18. He later coached Roger Bannister who became the world's first sub four-minute miler in 1954. Tim holds the oldest Hertfordshire County Schools Championship Best Performance of 4:00.7 in the U/17 1500 metres, set at Welwyn's Gosling Stadium in 1971 (www.hsaa.info/athletics) [Details of the Championships]. Tim also holds one of the oldest records in British athletics, setting a time of 5:33.1 for 2000 metres at Crystal Palace, a UK All-Time age 15, U/17 and Youth (U/18) record that is over forty years old (www.gbrathletics.com/uk/mu18.htm). A European and World age record, it stood for 23 years, until 1993, when Dalibor Balgac (CRO) did 5:25.69. This lasted 22 years, until Norweigan sensation, Jakob Ingebrigtsen ran 5:24.41, in 2015. The 2014 Millrose Games, the oldest indoor track meeting in the world, sees the inaugural Paavo Nurmi 2000 metres. The legendary 'Flying Finn' travelled to New York in 1925 where he set a 2000 metres indoor World record of 5:33.0 Tim was England Junior International reserve for the 1974 World Cross Country Championships in Monza, Italy. Prior to 1988 England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland competed as seperate teams. He attended Murray State University in Kentucky on an Athletics Scholarship from 1976 - 1979. He was never at full fitness because of injuries. After moving to Louisville in 1980, Tim became one of Kentucky's top road runners during the 1980's, representing New Balance and Team Etonic. Website 10th anniversary 2001 - 2011 www.subfour.net * Additional Performances 1969 U/15 * ZXC 18:25 9th Western Park, Leicester, English Schools Cross Country Championships 22 March 1969/ 1500 4:18.0 4th Motspur Park, Surrey, English Schools Track & Field Championships 5 July 1969/ 1500 4:14.9 1st Gosling Stadium, Welwyn, Hertfordshire County Schools Championships 21 June 1969_____The English Schools Championships are the Holy Grail for young athletes. It's about as pure as athletics can get. The rivalries are real, there are no pacemakers and it has the atmosphere of the Olympics. When asked what his most memorable performance was, Steve Ovett replied, "The first English Schools victory." Super Saturday, August 4 2012, was the greatest night in the history of British Athletics. For the first time ever Great Britain won three gold medals in one day, as Mo Farah, Jess Ennis and Greg Rutherford became Olympic champions. Mo and Jess were English Schools champions and Greg competed in the English Schools. The first ESAA Championships were held at Crystal Palace in 1925. I was lucky enough to compete there in 1971 when the championships returned to their spiritual home for the first and only time. It saw the best performance I ever witnessed at the English Schools, when Dave Glassborow won the U/20 1500 metres in 3:48.7, breaking Jim Ryun's World age 16 record. British Milers Club 60th Anniversary 1963 - 2023.....ESAA 100th Anniversary 1925 - 2025.