Spartathlon

Monument in Sparta with names of Spartathlon winners

The finisher’s medal

The reverse side of the medal

Spartathlon is a 246-kilometre (153 mi) ultramarathon race held annually in Greece since 1983 between Athens and Sparta.

Origin

The Spartathlon aims to trace the footsteps of Pheidippides, an Athenian messenger sent to Sparta in 490 BC to seek help against the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. Pheidippides, according to an account by Greek historian Herodotus in The Persian Wars, arrived in Sparta the day after he departed. Herodotus wrote: "On the occasion of which we speak when Pheidippides was sent by the Athenian generals, and, according to his own account, saw Pan on his journey, he reached Sparta on the very next day after quitting the city of Athens.".^[1] Based on this account, British RAF Wing Commander John Foden MBE and four other RAF officers travelled to Greece in 1982 on an official expedition to test whether it was possible to cover the nearly 250 kilometres in a day and a half. Three runners were successful in completing the distance: John Foden (37:37), John Scholtens (34:30) and John McCarthy in (39:00).^[2] The following year a team of enthusiastic supporters (British, Greek and other nationalities) based at the British Hellenic Chamber of Commerce in Athens and led by Philhellene Michael Callaghan organised the running of the first Open International Spartathlon Race. The event was run under the auspices of SEGAS, the Hellenic Amateur Athletics Association.

The race

The race starts at 7:00 am, usually on the last Friday of September, at the foot of the Acropolis. It runs out of Athens toward the coast and along the coast towards Corinth via Elefsis, Megara, and Kineta. The route reaches the Corinth Canal at 78.5 kilometres and the runners hit the first of six major check points at 81 kilometres.

After Corinth, the race heads toward Ancient Corinth, Nemea, Lyrkia, and at 159 kilometres reaches the top of Mount Parthenio. From there, it continues south toward Nestani and Tegea, before reaching the main Sparta highway just before the 200 kilometer mark.

Runners must pass through 75 checkpoints along the way and each checkpoint has a cut-off time. Runners outside the cut-off may be pulled out of the race, although tardiness in the first half of the race is generally tolerated. This tolerance begins to fade after sunset, and in the last third of the race organisers may pull out runners who are either outside the time limit or who display extreme fatigue.

Entry requirements

In order to run in this race an individual must meet at least one of the following requirements:

The individual has finished a race of at least 100 km (62 mi) in less than 10 hours, 30 minutes.
The individual has competed in an event of more than 200 kilometers (120 mi) and has completed the race in less than 29 hours and 30 minutes
The individual has already competed in Spartathlon and has reached the checkpoint "Nestani" (172 km) in less than 24 hours, 30 minutes.

Records

Yiannis Kouros, who won the first Spartathlon, still holds the record time at 20:25:00. Kouros competed in four Spartathlons, won all four and holds the four fastest times ever recorded. In 2005, he decided to trace the steps of Pheidippides completely and ran—out of competition—the Athens–Sparta–Athens distance.

In 2008, Scott Jurek won his third straight title, clocking the fifth fastest time in the history of the race. Only Kouros (four times) has run the course faster than Jurek.

In 2007, the 25th anniversary competition had a record 323 starters, and the 2008 race had a record 151 finishers under the 36-hour cut-off time.

Following are the winners of the Spartathlon:

Men

Time = hours:minutes:seconds

Year	1st	Nationality	Time	2nd	Nationality	Time	3rd	Nationality	Time
2016	Andrzej Radzikowski	Poland	23:01:13	Marco Bonfiglio	Italy	23:35:14	Brunner Radek	Czech Republic	24:06:39
2015	Florian Reus	Germany	23:16:44	Dan Lawson	United Kingdom	23:53:05	Hansen Kim	Denmark	23:53:52
2014	Ivan Cudin	Italy	22:27:57	Florian Reus	Germany	23:56:19	Andrzej Radzikowski	Poland	25:48:25
2013	João Oliveira	Portugal	23:28:31	Florian Reus	Germany	25:29:11	Ivan Cudin	Italy	25:53:44
2012	Stu Thoms	Germany	26:28:19^[3]	Tetsuo Kiso	Japan	26:36:23	Markus Thalmann	Austria	27:14:25
2011	Ivan Cudin	Italy	22:57:40	Yuji Sakai	Japan	24:22:24	Michael Vanicek	Germany	24:55:59
2010	Ivan Cudin	Italy	23:03:06	Jan Albert Lantink	Netherlands	23:31:00	Jan Prochaska	Germany	24:56:00
2009	Ryōichi Sekiya	Japan	23:48:24	Lars Skytte Christoffersen	Denmark	24:32:00	Jon Harald Berge	Norway	25:10:00
2008	Scott Jurek	United States	22:20:01	Markus Thalmann	Austria	24:52:09	Lars Skytte Christoffersen	Denmark	25:29:41
2007	Scott Jurek	United States	23:12:14	Piotr Kurylo	Poland	24:29:41	Valmir Nunes	Brazil	25:37:40
2006	Scott Jurek	United States	22:52:18	Ryōichi Sekiya	Japan	24:14:11	Masayuki Ohtaki (Otaki, Ōtaki)	Japan	25:19:12
2005	Jens Lukas	Germany	24:20:39	Jean-Jacques Moros	France	25:03:30	Markus Thalmann	Austria	26:34:42
2004	Jens Lukas	Germany	25:49:59	Markus Thalmann	Austria	26:20:02	Martin Juri	Australia	27:19:15
2003	Markus Thalmann	Austria	23:28:24	Valmir Nunes	Brazil	25:30:35	Jean-Jacques Moros	France	26:26:16
2002	Ryōichi Sekiya	Japan	23:47:54	Markus Thalmann	Austria	25:16:56	Jeffry Oonk	Netherlands	26:58:55
2001	Valmir Nunes	Brazil	23:18:05	Jens Lukas	Germany	24:46:51	Ryōichi Sekiya	Japan	25:27:30
2000	Masayuki Ohtaki (Otaki, Ōtaki)	Japan	24:01:10	Jens Lukas	Germany	24:59:54	Cees Verhagen	Netherlands	25:35:50
1999	Jens Lukas	Germany	25:38:03	Jean Pierre Guyomarch	France	27:08:57	Jun Onoki	Japan	27:16:36
1998	Kostas Reppos	Greece	25:11:41	Kenzi(Kenji) Okiyama	Japan	26:13:13	James Zarei	United Kingdom	26:44:04
1997	Constantinos Repos	Greece	23:37:00	Kenji Okiyama	Japan	25:55:00	Rune Larsson	Sweden	28:11:00
1996	Roland Vuillemenot	France	26:21:00	Mravlje Dusan	Slovenia	27:55:00	Roy Pirrung	United States	27:56:32
1995	James Zarei	United Kingdom	25:59:42	Vasilios Chalkias	Greece	27:49:46	Kazuyoshi Ikeda	Japan	28:12:00
1994	James Zarei	United Kingdom	26:15:00	Kenji Okiyama	Japan	25:55:00	Peeter Kirppu	Estonia	26:07:00
1993	Rune Larsson	Sweden	25:57:12	Jean-Claude Lapeyrigne	France	29:48:00	Schutze W.D.	Germany	29:50:38
1992^[4]	Rusko Kantief	Bulgaria	24:08:13	Paul Beckers	Belgium	25:05:48	Roy Pirrung	United States	28:33:02
1991	Seppo Tapio Leinonen	Finland	30:25:07	János Bogár	Hungary	24:15:31	George Stoakes	United Kingdom	30:50:35
1990	Yiannis Kouros	Greece	21:57:00	János Bogár	Hungary	24:49:19	Rune Larsson	Sweden	25:28:48
1989	János Bogár	Hungary	24:15:31	Rune Larsson	Sweden	24:42:05	Seiichi Morikawa	Japan	26:08:18
1988	Rune Larsson	Sweden	24:42:05	James Zarei	Iran	25:59:42	Georges Makris	Greece	26:47:00
1987	Rune Larsson	Sweden	24:41:46	Patrick Macke	United Kingdom	26:41:51	James Zarei	United Kingdom	27:27:16
1986	Yiannis Kouros	Greece	21:51:00	Erno Kies-Kiraly	Hungary	26:07:00	Peter Mann	Germany	26:41:00
1985	Patrick Macke	United Kingdom	23:18:00	Dusan Mravlje	Yugoslavia	24:39:22	Jean Calbera	France	24:42:00
1984	Yiannis Kouros	Greece	20:25:00	Dusan Mravlje	Yugoslavia	23:44:00	Patrick Macke	United Kingdom	24:32:05
1983	Yiannis Kouros	Greece	20:29:04	Dusan Mravlje	Yugoslavia	24:40:38	Alan Fairbrother	United Kingdom	27:39:14

Women

^[5]

Time = hours:minutes:seconds

Year	1st	Nationality	Time	2nd	Nationality	Time	3rd	Nationality	Time
2016	Katalin Nagy	United States	25:22:26	Smith Pam	United States	27:11:53	Maraz Zsuzsanna	Hungary	27:44:01
2015	Katalin Nagy	United States	25:06:05	Alyson Venti	United States	26:50:51	Szilvia Lubics	Hungary	29:18:44
2014	Szilvia Lubics	Hungary	26:53:40	Katalin Nagy	United States	28:55:03	Eva Esnaola	Spain	30:52:41
2013	Szilvia Lubics	Hungary	28:03:04	Antje Krause	Germany	30:07:15	Heike Bergmann	Germany	30:22:03
2012	Elizabeth Hawker	United Kingdom	27:02:17^[3]	Leonie van den Haak	Netherlands	28:42:36	Szilvia Lubics	Hungary	29:45:56
2011	Szilvia Lubics	Hungary	29:07:39	Ruth Podgornik Res	Slovenia	32:17:19	Mimi Anderson	United Kingdom	32:33:23
2010	Emily Gelder	United Kingdom	30:17:03	Heather Fouwdlink-Hawker	United Kingdom	32:43:00	Yoshiko Matsuda	Japan	33:31:00
2009	Sumie Inagaki	Japan	27:39:49	Yoshiko Matsuda	Japan	31:16:00	Lisa Bliss	United States	32:27:00
2008	Sook-Hue Hur	South Korea	30:03:22	Stacey Bunton	United States	31:25:59	Heinlein Marika	Germany	31:39:19
2007	Akiko Sakamoto	Japan	31:09:24	Vrigitte Bec	France	31:56:03	Kimie Noto	Japan	32:11:05
2006	Sumie Inagaki	Japan	28:37:20	Takako Furuyama	Japan	31:40:31	Mary Larsson-Hanudel	United States	31:41:56
2005	Kimie Noto	Japan	30:23:07	Elke Streicher	Germany	32:19:59	Anke Drescher	Germany	32:52:23
2004	Kimie Noto	Japan	29:57:40	Hiroko Okiyama	Japan	31:01:17	Anke Drescher	Germany	32:55:26
2003	Akiko Sakamoto	Japan	29:07:44	Sumie Inagaki	Japan	29:38:54	Barbara Szlachetka	Germany	31:50:23
2002	Irina Reutovich	Russia	28:10:48	Hiroko Okiyama	Japan	30:25:49	Mayumi Okabe	Japan	31:33:35
2001	Alzira Portela-Lario	Portugal	30:31:41	Kimie Funada(later Kimie Noto)	Japan	33:49:17	Heike Pawzik	Germany	34:41:10
2000	Hiroko Okiyama	Japan	29:16:37	Mary Larsson	United States	30:56:16	Helga Backhaus	Germany	31:35:24
1999	Anny Monot	France	35:38:08	Kimie Funada(later Kimie Noto)	Japan	35:41:31	-	-	-
1998	Mary Larsson	Sweden	28:46.58	Kimie Funada(later Kimie Noto)	Japan	29:32:21	Helga Backhaus	Germany	29:53:49
1997	Helga Backhaus	Germany	30:39:00	Kimie Funada(later Kimie Noto)	Japan	33:36:00	Heike Pawzik	Germany	33:46:00
1996	Helga Backhaus	Germany	29:33:00	Kimie Funada(later Kimie Noto)	Japan	33:36:00	Heike Pawzik	Germany	33:46:00
1995	Kimie Funada (later Kimie Noto)	Japan	29:32:21	Helga Backhaus	Germany	30:41:00	Miyako Yoshikoshi	Japan	35:40:31
1994	Helga Backhaus	Germany	30:39:00	Kazuko Kaihata	Japan	34:12:17	Miyako Yoshikoshi	Japan	34:33:21
1993	Sigrid Lomsky	Germany	32:46:17	Marie Bertrand	France	33:47:12	Miyako Yoshikoshi	Japan	34:18:00
1992	Hilary Walker	United Kingdom	31:23:30	Mary Hanudel-Larsson	United States	33:47:00	Miyako Yoshikoshi	Japan	33:47:52
1991	Ursula Blasberg	Germany	34:42:45	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Anne-Marie Deguilhem	France	34:07:41	Pascale Mahe	France	35:08:03	Mary Hanudel-Larsson	United States	35:31:30
1989	Mary Hanudel (later Mary Larsson)	United States	31:57:23	Monika Kuno	Germany	34:10:00	Eiko Endo	Japan	34:36:49
1988	-
1987	Hilary Walker	United Kingdom	31:23:30	Waltraud Reisert	Germany	35:31:56	-	-	-
1986	Mary Hanudel (later Mary Larsson)	United States	31:46:45	Waltraud Reisert	Germany	33:21:00	-	-	-
1985	Mary Hanudel (later Mary Larsson)	United States	34:10	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Mary Hanudel (later Mary Larsson)	United States	30:27:00	Marcy Schwam Lorna Richey (later Lorna Michael)	United States United States	34:15:10	-	-	-
1983	Eleanor Robinson (formerly Adams)	United Kingdom	32:37:52	-	-	-	-	-	-

All-time top 50 performances

	Athlete	Time	Country	Year	Place	Age
1.	Yiannis Kouros	20:25:00	GRE	1984	1	28
2.	Yiannis Kouros	20:29:04	GRE	1983	1	27
3.	Yiannis Kouros	21:51:00	GRE	1986	1	30
4.	Yiannis Kouros	21:57:00	GRE	1990	1	34
5.	Scott Jurek	22:20:01	USA	2008	1	34
6.	Ivan Cudin	22:29:29	ITA	2014	1	39
7.	Scott Jurek	22:52:18	USA	2006	1	32
8.	Ivan Cudin	22:57:40	ITA	2011	1	36
9.	Ivan Cudin	23:03:06	ITA	2010	1	35
10.	Patrick Macke	23:08:41	GBR	1990	2	35
11.	Scott Jurek	23:12:14	USA	2007	1	33
12.	Florian Reus	23:17:31	GER	2015	1	31
13.	Patrick Macke	23:18:00	GBR	1985	1	30
14.	Valmir Nunes	23:18:05	BRA	2001	1	37
15.	Markus Thalmann	23:28:24	AUT	2003	1	39
16.	Joao Oliveira	23:29:08	POR	2013	1	36
17.	Jan Lantink	23:31:22	HOL	2010	2	52
18.	Kostas Reppos	23:37:00	GRE	1997	1	31
19.	Dušan Mravlje	23:44:00	YUG	1985	2	32
20.	Ryōichi Sekiya	23:47:54	JPN	2002	1	35
21.	Ryōichi Sekiya	23:48:24	JPN	2009	1	42
22.	Dan Lawson	23:53:32	GBR	2015	2	42
23.	Kim Hansen	23:54:37	DEN	2015	3	40
24.	Florian Reus	23:57:13	GER	2014	2	30
25.	Ohtaki Masayuki	24:01:10	JPN	2000	1	34
26.	Radek Brunner	24:06:39	CZE	2016	3	41
27.	Rusko Kantief	24:08:13	BUL	1992	1	34
28.	Ryōichi Sekiya	24:14:11	JPN	2006	2	39
29.	Bogár János	24:15:31	HUN	1991	1	27
30.	Jens Lukas	24:20:39	GER	2005	1	39
31.	Piotr Kurylo	24:29:41	POL	2007	2	35
32.	Lars Christoffers	24:31:45	DEN	2009	2	37
33.	Patrick Macke	24:32:05	GBR	1989	1	34
34.	Dušan Mravlje	24:39:22	YUG	1983	2	30
35.	Dušan Mravlje	24:40:38	YUG	1984	2	31
36.	Rune Larsson	24:41:46	SWE	1987	1	31
37.	Jean-Dominique Calbera	24:42:00	FRA	1985	3	37
38.	Rune Larsson	24:42:05	SWE	1988	1	32
39.	Jens Lukas	24:46:51	GER	2001	2	35
39.	Bogár János	24:49:19	HUN	1990	3	26
40.	Markus Thalmann	24:52:09	AUT	2008	2	44
41.	Jan Prockaska	24:55:58	GER	2010	3	44
42.	Jens Lukas	24:59:54	GER	2000	2	34
43.	Jean-Jacques Moros	25:03:30	FRA	2005	2	35
44.	Paul Beckers	25:05:48	BEL	1992	2	30
45.	Katalin Nagy	25:07:12	USA	2015	4	36
46.	Jon Berge	25:09:38	NOR	2009	3	40
47.	Kostas Reppos	25:11:41	GRE	1998	1	32
48.	Markus Thalmann	25:16:56	AUT	2002	2	38
49.	Masayuki Ohtaki	25:19:12	JPN	2006	3	40
50.	Ryōichi Sekiya	25:27:30	JPN	2001	3	34

^[6]

References

↑ Herodotus, The Persian Wars, Chapter 6, paragraph 106
↑ Spartathlon 1983-2007, page 23, Published by the International Spartathlon Association, Athens, Greece
1 2 "Finishers". Spartathlon. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
↑ File:Spartatalon finishers 1992.jpg
↑ http://www.spartathlon.gr/en/results/finishers.html
↑ Spartathlon 1983-2007, International Spartathlon Association, 7 Kodrou street, 10558, Athens, Greece

External links

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