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Herbert James "Herb" Elliott AC MBE is a former Australian athlete, one of the world's greatest middle distance runners. In August 1958 he set the world record in the mile run, clocking 3:54.5, 2.7 seconds under the record held by Derek Ibbotson; later in the month he set the 1500 metres world record, running 3.36.0, 2.1 seconds under the record held by Stanislav Jungwirth. In the 1500 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics, he won the gold medal and bettered his own world record with a time of 3:35.6.
Few people have ever exercised such absolute authority in any branch of sport as Elliott did in middle distance running from 1957 to 1961. During that span he never lost a 1500 metres or 1-mile race. During his career, he broke four minutes for the mile on 17 occasions.
Elliott is the chairman of one of the world's largest iron ore mining companies, and of the Global Corporate Challenge health initiative.
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