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It was an unusual reunion — 11 amateur athletes dressed in suits and matching trainers, one District Line train and a stopwatch.

Their challenge? To sprint the 1.5 miles between four stations in the same time it took a Tube train.

Fifteen years after the Standard covered the first Tube dash by Richard Guthrie and his friends, they returned this week to race once more. They boarded at Victoria and at the next stop, as the doors slid open at South Kensington, the race began.

The competitors, ranging from their twenties to forties and including a former rugby player and an international rower, dashed out of the station and commenced a mile-and-a-half sprint to Fulham Broadway to try to make it back onto the same train.

The challenge was originally conceived by Mr Guthrie, now 41, in 1999 following a conversation with a friend about Roger Bannister breaking the world four-minute mile record.

Inspired by Bannister’s 1954 achievement, they decided to set themselves their own challenge, albeit more quirky. So Tuesday, the 60th anniversary of Bannister’s run, saw another momentous occasion in sporting history as six of the 11 Tube dashers beat the train.

Mr Guthrie, who missed it by seconds, explained: “We get out of the carriage in South Kensington and the idea is you have to get back on at the same carriage.

“We have 1.5 miles and 27 roads and have to go in and out of two Tube stations and have to negotiate countless pedestrians all in about nine and a half minutes.” The challenge has been fine-tuned over the years — smaller teams have taken part since 1999 — to give competitors a chance.

“We use the first door of the third carriage because it stops right under the steps at South Kensington. And we always run in rush hour because the Tube runs slower,” says surveyor Mr Guthrie. He now lives in Scarborough but has sworn to continue the Tube dash until he wins...“so I’ll be back next year.”