Sir Roger Bannister believes Mo Farah could bring the sort of excitement to track and field which British athletics has not seen since the days of Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett.

Farah took gold last weekend in the 3,000metres at the European Indoor Championships in Turin, in a time of seven minutes and 40.17 seconds.

And Sir Roger, revered as the first man to run a mile in under four minutes, believes the 25-year-old could transfix the nation in London in 2012.
"Mo Farrah is today's Seb Coe," said Sir Roger. "He is terrific.

"He is lovely to watch and he has a great future.

He's right up there with the fastest in the world. He happens to be born in Somalia and he trains at altitude but that has been overplayed.

"We need someone to emulate what Coe and Ovett did all those years ago. We have Andrew Baddeley too. He had an injury, otherwise he might have been a 1,500m medallist in Beijing.

"I'm optimistic about athletics. I'm optimistic about London."

Sir Roger was speaking at the Iffley Road Track, where he made history running 3:59.4 to become the first sub-four-minute miler in May 1954, on a day when his duties were confined to starting the annual Teddy Hall relay race at Oxford University.

His links with the university are still close and he is proud of the 49 Olympic medals which have been won by athletes from Oxford.

There are big plans, as part of a £1.25billion fund-raising venture, to turn the site of his famous mile into world-class facilities and he said: "The university has much more to with sport these days. This place (Iffley Road) is going to be quadrupled in size.

"The aim is to get university sport not that different from the Olympic level. That is very difficult because it takes two hours or so on sport each day as well as studies. But I have always believed it is possible, especially in a sport like athletics."

As part of celebrations for his 80th birthday later this month Sir Roger, who missed out on an Olympic medal when he came fourth in the 1952 Olympics, has been invited to the Boat Race, which this year boasts five Olympians in the Dark Blue boat, including Oxford president Colin Smith who won a silver medal in the men's eight in Beijing.

Sir Roger is also hoping to bang the drum for London in the run-up to the Olympics.

"Sebastian Coe asked me to go to London a month ago and I was very impressed with what has been done with a desolate part of London," said Sir Roger.

"There is a good prospect of a legacy being left and that's good."