Sir Roger Bannister, first to break 4-minute mile barrier, dies aged 88

— -- Champion runner Steve Cram led tributes to the late Sir Roger Bannister, hailing the man who broke the four-minute mile as "inspirational" and an athlete who led a resurgence in British middle-distance running.

News of Bannister's death was announced Sunday, his family saying he died peacefully Saturday in Oxford, England.

On a windy late afternoon in Oxford on May 6, 1954, Bannister ran four laps on a cinder track in three minutes 59.4 seconds to crack the mythical 4-minute mile -- a feat many had thought humanly impossible. A few months later in 1954, Bannister beat Australian rival John Landy in the "Miracle Mile" or "Mile of the Century" at the Empire Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, as both men ran under four minutes.

Bannister then gave up running to pursue a long and distinguished medical career.

Tributes poured in from around the world of athletics. Cram, the 1983 1,500-metre world champion and Olympic silver medallist, said he grew up watching the video of Bannister breaking the four-minute mile at Iffley Road and has had many conversations with the legend throughout his own athletics career and now as a broadcaster.

"His achievement in 1954 lived with him his whole life and it inspired so many people and it inspired a resurgence in British middle-distance running," Cram told ESPN. "He was an incredibly inspirational person to not only people of my era, but to before and after.

"He was incredibly intelligent man who could be quite challenging, not in a bad way, but he would always want to talk to you. Initially as a young athlete it was about my training and what I was doing and in later years we'd talk sometimes around what was going on in the world of athletics and he was always interested in training techniques, altitude training, why we were running quicker and faster.

"In later years I'd often have conversations about broadcasting as he was sitting at home watching on television. Conversations could go anywhere. He was always full of questions.

"I was very fortunate, Seb [Coe] and Steve Ovett would be the same, that we got to meet him on many occasions, but he never lost that aura. He had this aura of being the man who broke the four-minute mile, a pioneer in so many ways. His achievement was voted one of the greatest moments of the century and to have done something like that was awesome."

Lord Coe, now president of the IAAF, paid tribute to Bannister on Twitter: "This is a day of intense sadness both for our nation and for all of us in athletics. There is not a single athlete of my generation who was not inspired by Roger and his achievements both on and off the track."

Olympic champion Mo Farah said: "I'm so sorry to hear the sad news about Roger Bannister. I met him several times throughout my career and he was always humble, supportive and encouraging. He was an inspiration to so many, being the first man to break the 4-minute mile. My thoughts are with his family and friends."

For Cram, Bannister's legacy is two-fold. He made an immediate impact on the world when he broke the four-minute mark, and that achievement has transcended the sport ever since.

"His legacy was that he did something which was a sporting achievement which was one of the first to be filmed, it went around the world and brought a sense of awe and wonder to what we try to do on a daily basis," Cram said. "He's the grand doyen of middle-distance running as to this day, people are still trying to break the four-minute mile and most of them will know who the first guy to do it was. That will never go away, Sir Roger Bannister -- he's the man to do it first.

"He was also representative of the change of Corinthian ideals that athletics still had going into the 50s, so the change into a more professional time when people would set real targets and be more scientific of what they're trying to do and set training methods which he was really into as well. He's left an awful lot behind, it's very sad he's gone but we'll never forget what he did."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.?