The Millicent Fawcett Mile heads to Iffley Road and Bannister Miles
This year’s Millicent Fawcett Mile will take place on Monday, 4th May 2026, at the famous Iffley Road track in Oxford, where Roger Bannister broke the four-minute barrier.
The Millicent Fawcett Mile will be held as part of the Bannister Mile, an annual athletics event organised by Oxford University Cross Country Club. The event has two components: a Community Mile held in the morning and the Track Miles in the afternoon. The Millicent Fawcett Mile will take place at 5:45pm, with the Men’s Elite Race at 6pm.
Past editions of the Millicent Fawcett Mile have seen winning performances, including the iconic win by Sifan Hassan, who ran 4:14.71 at the 2018 Muller Anniversary Games in London. Last year’s winner was Tsige Teshome, who clocked 4:26.79 at the Monument Mile in Scotland.
The race commemorates Dame Millicent Fawcett (1847–1929), who led the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), whose mass campaign was instrumental in securing women’s first voting rights in 1918. She was the first woman honoured with a statue in Parliament Square. This mile event, established in 2018, serves as a premier women’s mile race in Great Britain, mirroring the tradition of the men’s Emsley Carr Mile, in which winners sign a commemorative book.
Thomas Renshaw, Event Director of the Bannister Mile – Oxford event, said:
“As an event organised by a group of university students, we could have never imagined the rapid growth we have seen over the past couple of years. To have now reached the stage where we have been asked to host such a prestigious mile race, we are excited and very proud. We look forward to welcoming some of the UK’s top athletes to Iffley Road in May for what should be an exciting afternoon of racing.”
Athletes who would like to run in the Millicent Fawcett Mile or the men’s elite race should contact Event Director Thomas Renshaw. Details can be found at the Bannister Miles webpage.
Entries for Bannister Miles can be found here:
