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John Landy, one of Australia's great sportsmen, has died at the age of 91 after a life full of achievement both on and off the athletics track.

The middle distance legend, who was the second man to break the four-minute mile barrier, passed away at his home in Castlemaine, Victoria, on Thursday surrounded by his family after a long battle with Parkinson's .

Landy, a figure of huge integrity and class, was responsible for the finest and most selfless Australian sporting moment of the 20th century - even if it didn't sit easily with him.

By his own admission, he would have preferred to be remembered as simply a good runner.

Or for becoming the 26th Governor of Victoria, an office he discharged with the same dignity and good sense that characterised his life, or for his work on the Australian Sports Commission, or his writings on nature.

Or perhaps even for creating one of his country's finest butterfly collections.

John Michael Landy may have been one of the greatest middle-distance runners of his era but he was much more - a capable scientist, an author, a humanitarian, a husband and a father.

But it was for his athletic prowess, a talent developed as a boy chasing butterflies through paddocks around Melbourne, that Landy first came to prominence.

He initially took up competitive running to help him get fit for football, only becoming serious about it after making the Victorian athletics team in 1951.

Within 12 months he was on the Australian team for the Helsinki Olympic Games, and a couple of years later became deeply engaged in a battle with Englishman Roger Bannister to become the first man to achieve a feat thought to be beyond human capability - to run a mile in under four minutes.

As Landy and Bannister rolled on toward the magical mark, their ambition became one of the most eagerly anticipated events in the history of track and field.

In the end it was Bannister who won that "race" stopping the clock in a state of near collapse at 3 minutes 59.4 seconds at Oxford on May 6, 1954.

Less than two months later in Finland, Landy, who had threatened the mark several times that year, breezed past Bannister's world record, running 3:57.90.

Those two, sub-four-minute runs preceded the 1954 Empire Games in Vancouver where Landy and Bannister, the world's two fastest milers, met face-to-face in a showdown billed as the Race of the Century

The Englishman won, outrunning and outfoxing Landy who, at a vital stage, looked for him over his left shoulder as Bannister made his move on the right.

Bannister retired from running in 1955 to concentrate on what became a celebrated career as a neurologist, later writing about Landy in Sports Illustrated, describing the Australian as "an athlete faster, neater and more generous than any other."

Landy, meanwhile, pushed on to the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games where he was the favourite to win the "metric mile", the 1500m.

It was in the lead-up to those Games that Landy earned his almost mythical place in Australian sporting folklore.

Running in the Australian Mile Championship in 1956 Landy was in a winning position when fellow athlete Ron Clarke tripped and fell in front of him with about a lap and a half to go.

Landy leapt over Clarke and then turned back to help his rival to his feet, a gesture that cost him valuable seconds and around 50 metres.

After checking on Clarke, he got going again, circled the field and won a race that assured him a place in the Australian Olympic team.

In time, Landy came to view it less gloriously than most, describing it as "that silly race when I whizzed back to Ron Clarke".

"I reacted on the spur of the moment. I ran down his arm with my spikes when I was jumping over him. That's why I went back.

"A lot of people seemed to think it was the most significant thing I ever did in running.

"It wasn't."

Nevertheless, a statue depicting the incident was erected 50 years later outside Melbourne's Olympic Park and, in 1999, the Sport Australia Hall of Fame declared Landy responsible for the nation's Finest Sporting Moment of the Century.

Landy duly ran at the 1956 Melbourne Games, finishing third behind the Irishman Ron Delany.

It was to be the last shot Landy would have at a major international title.

Landy went on to work in the field of agricultural science, a subject he studied at Melbourne University, and held various positions in sporting and community organisations.

In 2001 he became the Queen's man in Victoria, serving for five years with typical generosity and openness.

The same qualities, perhaps, led Landy to donate his butterflies, some 10,000 of them, personally collected and catalogued, and estimated to be worth at least $1 million, to the Australian National Museum in 2017.

Landy leaves his wife Lynne and children Matthew and Alison.

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The Illawarra Hawks have sealed a season sweep over the Adelaide 36ers for the first time in 32 years by beating the visitors 87-71 in Wollongong.

Stunned in their last outing at the WIN Entertainment Centre, Brian Goorjian's side set themselves up for a comfortable win early, leading by as many as 19 points through the second quarter.

However, Adelaide (5-8) responded with fire and venom after the main break, going on a 13-5 run before tying the game at 59-59 behind a plethora of offensive rebounds and second chance opportunities.

The Hawks (9-7) wrangled back momentum late in the third term to take a three-point buffer, before Isaac White caught fire in the fourth term along with Tyler Harvey and Duop Reath as the hosts surged for a vital win.

White had 14 points in as many minutes off the bench, while big man Reath led his sides scoring with 18 points, eight rebounds and three blocks on as he put the game out of reach from the free-throw line late.

Next Stars ace Justinian Jessup also had an efficient night, registering 17 points on 6 of 10 shooting while hitting three of his six attempts from deep.

The win improves Illawarra's home record but their post-season push will incoude nine of their 12 games remaining on the road.

"I don't fear the road," Goorjian said after the win.

"It's not where you play, its how you play.

"I'm excited to go on the road with this group and excited about the future of the organisation."

Goorjian was alluding to the re-signing of centre Sam Froling, on a three-year deal, which he said is a testament to the direction the club is heading off the floor as well.

"I'm really excited about Sam, Sam's future and that he's going to be here and it says a lot about the ownership in our organisation that they've gone and got this done during our season," he said.

For the 36ers, Friday's loss is their sixth away from home this campaign as CJ Bruton's side continue to struggle on the road.

But Sunday Dech was hot against his former side finishing with 18 points with five three-pointers and said he was looking forward to showing out for the Adelaide fans on Sunday.

"We're always confident especially at home, we play great there," Dech said.

"It's a quick turnaround for us, we've got to go home, regroup, freshen up and get ready for Sydney who are hot right now."

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Missiles have pounded the Ukrainian capital as Russian forces pressed their advance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleaded with the international community to do more, saying sanctions announced so far were not enough.

Air raid sirens wailed over the city of 3 million people, where some were sheltering in underground metro stations, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion that has shocked the world.

A Ukrainian official said a Russian plane had been shot down and crashed into a building.

A senior Ukrainian official said Russian forces would enter areas just outside the capital, Kyiv, later on Friday and that Ukrainian troops were defending positions on four fronts despite being outnumbered.

An estimated 100,000 people fled as explosions and gunfire rocked major cities. Dozens have been reported killed. Russian troops seized the Chernobyl former nuclear power plant north of Kyiv as they advanced on the city from Belarus.

US and Ukrainian officials say Russia aims to capture Kyiv and topple the government, which Putin regards as a puppet of the United States.

Zelenskiy said he understood Russian troops were coming for him but vowed to stay in Kyiv.

"(The) enemy has marked me down as the number one target," Zelenskiy said in a video message. "My family is the number two target. They want to destroy Ukraine politically by destroying the head of state."

"I will stay in the capital. My family is also in Ukraine."

Russia launched its invasion by land, air and sea on Thursday following a declaration of war by Putin, in the biggest attack on a European state since World War II.

Putin says Russia is carrying out "a special military operation" to stop the Ukrainian government from committing "genocide" - an accusation the West calls a baseless fabrication.

He says Ukraine is an illegitimate state whose lands historically belong to Russia, a view which Ukrainians see as an attempt to erase their more than thousand year history.

Putin says he does not plan a military occupation, only to disarm Ukraine and remove its leaders.

Britain said Moscow's aim was to conquer all of Ukraine, and its military had failed to meet its main objectives on the first day because it failed to anticipate Ukrainians would resist.

"It's definitely our view that the Russians intend to invade the whole of Ukraine," Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told Sky.

"Contrary to great Russian claims - and indeed President Putin's sort of vision that somehow the Ukrainians would be liberated and would be flocking to his cause - he's got that completely wrong, and the Russian army has failed to deliver, on day one, its main objective."

Ukrainians were circulating an unverified recording on Friday of a Russian warship ordering Ukrainian troops at a Black Sea outpost to surrender. The Ukrainians reply: "Russian warship, go fuck yourself." Zelenskiy said the 13 men were killed by a Russian strike and would receive posthumous honours.

Ukrainian forces downed an enemy aircraft over Kyiv early on Friday, which then crashed into a residential building and set it ablaze, said Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister.

It was unclear whether the aircraft was manned or whether it could be a missile. Kyiv municipal authorities said at least eight people were injured when the object crashed into an apartment block.

Authorities said intense fighting was under way in the city of Sumy in the northeast.

A border post in the southeast had been hit by missiles, causing deaths and injuries among border guards, and air raid sirens sounded over the city of Lviv in the west of the country.

A democratic nation of 44 million people, Ukraine voted for independence at the fall of the Soviet Union and has recently stepped up efforts to join the NATO military alliance and the European Union, aspirations that infuriate Moscow.

Western countries unveiled financial sanctions on Moscow billed as far stronger than earlier measures, including blacklisting its banks and banning technology imports.

However, they stopped short of forcing Russia out of the SWIFT system for international bank payments.

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The Australian economy and federal budget will be impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says.

Mr Frydenberg is deep in preparations for the budget to be delivered on March 29, ahead of a likely May federal election.

Economic forecasts produced for December's mid-year budget update, including unemployment and growth, will be recast in the budget.

Mr Frydenberg said the fighting in the Ukraine presented a "significant headwind for the global recovery", coming as nations sought to emerge from the two-year shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"For Australia, we may be geographically remote from events in the Ukraine and Russia but we will certainly be impacted economically by what transpires," he told ABC TV on Friday.

He said higher fuel prices could be expected, but talked down the potential for fuel excise to be cut in the budget to ease pressure at the bowser.

"The fuel excise is the money that flows directly back into infrastructure spending," he said.

Mr Frydenberg said there were some positive signs in the Australian economy, including the unemployment rate and the reduction in hospitalisation rates from COVID-19.

"(But) the events in Ukraine are a reminder that things can change very quickly and we can't take our peace and prosperity for granted," he said.

With Australia imposing a third tranche of sanctions on Russia on Friday, Mr Frydenberg said it would also be welcome if nations agreed to exclude Moscow from the main international payments network known as SWIFT.

"It would really hurt them and it would effectively remove them from the international financial system."

However, he noted that with Europe getting 40 per cent of its gas from Russia the inability to settle such transactions could have damaging knock-on effects for European nations.

The US would also need to agree, he said, because the dollar was central to cross-border transactions.

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