Diane S Leather Charles (7 January 19335 September 2018) was an English athlete who was the first woman to run a sub-5-minute mile.

Early life

Leather was born in Streetly,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. She was one of six children, and the only daughter, of Mabel (née Barringer) and James Leather, a surgeon. She played lacrosse as a child, and watching the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

sparked her interest in athletics. While studying chemistry at the Birmingham College of Technology (now Aston University), she joined the Birchfield Harriers athletics club in Birmingham and was coached by

Doris Nelson Neal Dorothy Nelson Neal OBE (1908–1982) was influential in the early days of women's athletics in Great Britain. Neal was a high-ranking member of Birchfield Harriers athletics club for 53 years, and is recognised as one of the main and most res ...

. She later worked as an analytical chemist at the University of Birmingham.

Athletic career

Neal saw that Leather had the potential to perform well in longer races, however at the time the longest recognised event in women's athletics was the 200-metre race. This limit had been adopted after six women collapsed at the finish line in an 800-metre race at the 1928 Olympics. Nevertheless, Neal coached Leather for racing the mile and the following year, she broke the world best time, running a mile in 5:02.6. Her achievement was labelled "world best" rather than "world record" by the IAAF as the distance was not officially recognised for a further 15 years. On 29 May 1954, Leather broke the 5-minute barrier with a time of 4 minutes and 59.6 seconds during the Midlands Women's AAA Championships at Birmingham's Alexander Sports Ground. Coincidentally, it was only 23 days since

Roger Bannister Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister (23 March 1929 – 3 March 2018) was an English neurologist and middle-distance athlete who ran the first sub-4-minute mile. At the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Bannister set a British record in the 1500 metres and ...

had become the first man to run a sub

4-minute mile A four-minute mile is the completion of a mile run (1609 m) in four minutes or less. It was first achieved in 1954 by Roger Bannister, at age 25, in 3:59.4. As of April 2021, the "four-minute barrier" has been broken by 1,663 athletes, and is ...

, 100 km away. In 1955, Leather broke the mile record by a further 15 seconds, achieving her personal best of 4:45. This remained the world record for seven years until New Zealand's Marise Chamberlain ran 4:41.4 in 1962. Leather won two European Championship silver medals at 800 metres: at the 1954 event in Bern, she was second behind the Soviet Union's

Nina Otkalenko Nina Grigoryevna Otkalenko (née Pletnyova; russian: Нина Григорьевна Откаленко; 23 May 1928 – 13 May 2015) was a Soviet middle-distance runner. She won a European title in the 800 m at the inaugural 1954 European Athle ...

in 2:09.8, while at the 1958 event in Stockholm, she was second to another Soviet, Yelizaveta Yermolayeva, running 2:06.6. She was also a two-time winner of the women's race at the

International Cross Country Championships The International Cross Country Championships was an annual international competition in cross country running. It was created in 1903 by the International Cross Country Union (ICCU) and it marked the first time that an annual international champ ...

in 1954 and 1955, and won the national cross country women's title four times. She married Peter Charles, an industrial engineer turned financial consultant, in 1959, and competed in her final competition, the

1960 Summer Olympics The 1960 Summer Olympics ( it, Giochi Olimpici estivi del 1960), officially known as the Games of the XVII Olympiad ( it, Giochi della XVII Olimpiade) and commonly known as Rome 1960 ( it, Roma 1960), were an international multi-sport event held ...

in Rome, as Diana Charles.Diane Leather, first woman to run a mile in under five minutes, dies at 85
''Washington Post'' She was eliminated in the heats of the 800 metres, in 2:14.24. She held the British record for 1500m for 11 years and held claim to the world mark in the mile for 8 years in total.

Personal life

Charles retired from athletics at the age of 27 and lived in Cornwall for the remainder of her life. She worked for child protection agencies and was a volunteer for Cruse Bereavement Care and

Samaritans Samaritans (; ; he, שומרונים, translit=Šōmrōnīm, lit=; ar, السامريون, translit=as-Sāmiriyyūn) are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samarit ...

.Diane Leather obituary
''The Guardian'' She was married for more than 55 years—her husband died in 2017—and had four children and 13 grandchildren. She died on 5 September 2018, aged 85, in Truro, Cornwall. She had recently suffered a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

References

External links

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"Almost the 5 Minute Mile"
Pathe newsreel featuring Leather, 31 May 1954 {{DEFAULTSORT:Leather, Diane 1933 births 2018 deaths Sportspeople from Staffordshire English female middle-distance runners Birchfield Harriers European Athletics Championships medalists International Cross Country Championships winners Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Great Britain