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Diane Leather

Personal information
Full name	Diane Leather Charles
Born	(1933-01-07)7 January 1933 Streetly, Staffordshire, England
Died	5 September 2018(2018-09-05) (aged 85) Truro, Cornwall, England
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Great Britain European Championships 1954 Bern 800 metres 1958 Stockholm 800 metres

Diane S Leather Charles (7 January 1933 – 5 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. 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 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. She later worked as an analytical chemist at the University of Birmingham.

Running was initially a way for her to maintain her fitness for playing hockey.

Athletic career

Leather was coached by Dorette Neal, a long-serving secretary of the Midland Counties WAAA. 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 false media reports that six women collapsed at the finish line in an 800-metre race at the 1928 Olympics. Nevertheless, Neal coached Leather for racing middle distance.

Leather's maiden cross-country season was an immediate success. She went into the 1953 national championships having won every race she had entered, including the national junior cross-country title, and the Midland Championships.

In the track season, Leather collected regional titles at 880 yards (Staffordshire), and 800 metres (Midlands). At national level, she placed third over 880 yards at the AAA Championships. Leather gained a niche world record in August 1953. In a Great Britain v France meeting at White City, Leather anchored Great Britain "B" in a 3 x 880 yard relay. Leather maintained a lead over Great Britain "A" throughout her leg to bring her team home in a world record 6 minutes 49 seconds. The same teams contested a rematch in September, but on this occasion Leather was unable to overhaul individual world record holder Valerie Winn in the home straight, with both teams falling short of the record.

Also in September, shortly after fellow Briton Anne Oliver set a world's best for the mile of 5:08, Leather tackled the distance, for only the second time. Taking the lead just before passing halfway in 2:37.8, Leather upped the pace to move well ahead of the field and gain the world best with 5:02.6, eight seconds clear of Enid Harding. Her achievement was labelled "world best" rather than "world record" by the IAAF as the distance was not officially recognised for women for a further 15 years. The nature of the race, with the second half much quicker than the first, led the Athletics Weekly correspondent to write "it seems obvious that this girl could beat five minutes for the distance if she had any real opposition". Leather only held the world mark until November, when Edith Treybal posted a time of 5:00.3.

Leather had a strong cross-country season in 1954. She retained her Midland title, took an emphatic victory in the English national championship at Aylesbury, and took first place in an England v Scotland international meeting at Perry Barr.

Carrying her form into the track season, Leather made an attempt at the mile record at a Birchfield Harriers hosted meeting on 26 May 1954. Leading the race throughout, Leather was behind record pace for the first three laps, but ran the last lap in 71.6 seconds to record a world best of 5:00.2, nearly 36 seconds clear of the field and a tenth of a second under Treybal's record. Three days later Leather competed in the Midlands Women's AAA Championships at Birmingham's Alexander Sports Ground. In the 800m, Leather battled for position with Loakes of Kettering until pulling clear with 200m to go, and set a British all-comers record of 2:14.1. Having secured the 800m win, Leather decided to "have a go" at the mile race, which took place less than an hour later. Leather broke the 5-minute mile barrier with a time of 4 minutes and 59.6 seconds. The record came despite a very uneven pace; her second lap was nearly ten seconds slower than her first. Coincidentally, it was only 23 days since Roger Bannister had become the first man to run a sub 4-minute mile, 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 was selected in the Great Britain team for the 1954 European Championships in Bern, to compete in the 800 metres. Though Leather had great prowess at longer distances, this was not an option; 800 metres was the longest distance event in the women's programme. Leather came through her heat in second place, a tenth of a second behind Soviet Lyudmila Lysenko in 2:08.9.

Leather won two European silver medals at 800 metres: at the 1954 event in Bern, she was second behind the Soviet Union's Nina Otkalenko 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 in 1954 and 1955, and won the national cross country women's title four times.

At the 1957 AAA Championships, Leather became national champion at both 880 yards and the mile. This double of middle-distance events went unmatched by any woman for 39 years, until Kelly Holmes won the 800m and 1500m in 1996. The same year, Leather also set a world's best at 1500m, in 4 minutes 30 seconds.

She married Peter Charles, an industrial engineer turned financial consultant, in 1959, and competed in her final competition, the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, as Diane Charles. 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.

After Diane's competitive career was over, the Charles family maintained links with the sport. Diane looked after the infant child of long jump world record holder Mary Rand while Rand was away at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Her husband Peter later gave financial advice and assistance to Daley Thompson ahead of his first Olympic Games in 1980.

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. 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.

References

1. ^ "Mile legend Diane Leather dies - Athletics Weekly". Athletics Weekly. 7 September 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
2. ^ Diane Leather obituary The Guardian
3. ^ "A pioneer of women's running and the first female to run a sub-five-minute mile,I Diane Leather, has died - Runner's World". www.runnersworld.co.uk. 7 September 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
4. ^ Smith, Harrison (13 September 2018). "Diane Leather, first woman to run a mile in under five minutes, dies at 85". The Washington Post.
5. Ingle, Sean (25 May 2014). "Sixty years ago Diane Leather smashed world record but not sex barrier | Sean Ingle". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
6. Jeremy Alexander and Neil Robinson (7 May 1994). "A case of hell for Leather in the shadow of Bannister". The Guardian.
7. "Mrs Dorette Neal". The Times. 20 October 1982.
8. ""Eleven Wretched Women"". Runner's World. 14 May 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2023.
9. Jobling, Ian (2006). "The Women's 800 Metres Track Event Post 1928: Quo Vadis?"" (PDF). Journal of Olympic History. 14 (1): 43–47 – via International Society of Olympic Historians.
10. Padnani, Amisha (12 September 2018). "Diane Leather, 85, First Woman to Run Mile in Under 5 Minutes, Dies". Obituaries. The New York Times. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
11. "Women's National Cross-Country Championship". Athletics Weekly. 21 March 1953. p. 2.
12. "Women's Junior National CC Championship". Athletics Weekly. 31 January 1953. p. 12.
13. "Midland Women's Cross-Country Championship". Athletics Weekly. 7 March 1953. p. 15-16.
14. "County Championships". Athletics Weekly. 27 June 1953. p. 5.
15. "Fine running at White City". The Times. 4 August 1953.
16. "London beat Stockholm". Athletics Weekly. 3 October 1953. p. 6.
17. ^ "Britain beat Netherlands". Athletics Weekly. 10 October 1953. p. 6-9.
18. Kelly, Kevin (14 May 2006). "Scan This Book!". New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2008.
19. "Cross-Country Running". The Times. 22 March 1954.
20. ^ "Gallant failure of Diane Leather, then success". Athletics Weekly. June 1954. p. 16.
21. "Athletics photographic encyclopedia, athlete, olympic games, world championship, european championship & hero images by". Sporting-heroes.net. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
22. "50 Years Ago Roger Bannister Became a Sporting Legend with his Four Minute Mile : Why is his Female Equivalent Just Seen as an Also Ran ?". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
23. Sears, Edward Seldon (2001). "The Modern Superstars (1950-2000)". Running Through the Ages. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 283. ISBN 9780786409716.
24. "The European Championships". Athletics Weekly. 4 September 1954. p. 5-12.
25. International Cross Country Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 3 April 2015.
26. David Powell (17 June 1996). "Ladejo takes the shine off Black's golden day". The Times.
27. Jessica Shepherd (23 May 2004). "4 mins 59.6secs The time a land forgot; 50 YEARS SINCE WOMEN'S MILE RECORD". Sunday Mercury.
28. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Diane Charles Olympic Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2017.
29. Frank Keating (28 July 1979). "Caught napping by Mary the great". The Guardian.
30. Robin Lustig (28 January 1979). "Olympic hope in house cash row". The Observer.
31. ^ Robinson, Roger (7 September 2018). "Diane Leather Charles, First Woman to Break 5-Minute Mile, Dies at 85". Runner's World. Retrieved 9 September 2018.

External links

• Diane Leather at Olympics.com
• Diane Leather at Olympedia
• "Almost the 5 Minute Mile" Pathe newsreel featuring Leather, 31 May 1954

• 1933 births
• 2018 deaths
• Sportspeople from Staffordshire
• English female middle-distance runners
• British 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 for Great Britain