Yiannis Kouros who? I was doing some reading up on marathon timings when Dennis Kimetto smashed the world record on Sep 28th at the Berlin Marathon. He did it in 2:02:57.
So while reading about the progression of marathon running times, I came about a link on ultra-marathons and while going through the best timings, the name of Yiannis Kouros kept coming up. What was more remarkable about his records were not just the number of them but he had done this in the 1980's. Werent the runners of today much more advanced than those 30 years ago.
| Event | Record | Athlete | Date | Place | Ref |
|---|
| 50 km Road | 2:43:38 |  Thompson Magawana (RSA) | 12 April 1988 | Claremont, South Africa | [3] |
| 50 km Track | 2:48:06 |  Jeff Norman (GBR) | 7 June 1980 | Timperley, United Kingdom | [3] |
| 100 km Road | 6:13:33 |  Takahiro Sunada (JPN) | 21 June 1998 | Yubetsu-Saroma-Tokoro, Japan | [3] |
| 100 km Track | 6:10:20 | Donald Ritchie (GBR) | 28 Oct 1978 | London, United Kingdom | [3] |
| 100 miles Road | 11.46.37 |  Yiannis Kouros (GRE) | 7/8 Nov 1984 |  Queens New York, USA | [3] |
| 100 miles Track | 11.28.03 |  Oleg Kharitonov (RUS) | 20 Oct 2002 | London, United Kingdom | [3] |
| 100 miles Indoor | 12.56.13 | Donald Ritchie (GBR) | 3/4 Feb 1990 | Milton Keynes, United Kingdom | [3] |
| 6H Road | 92.188 km |  Tomasz Chawawko (POL) | 7 Mar 2004 |  Stein, Netherland | [3] |
| 6H Track | 97.200 km | Donald Ritchie (GBR) | 28 Oct 1978 | London, United Kingdom | [3] |
| 6H Indoor | 93.247 km | Denis Zhalybin (RUS) | 7/8 Feb 2003 | Moscow, Russia | [3] |
| 12H Road | 162.543 km | Yiannis Kouros (GRE) | 7 Nov 1984 | New York, USA | [3] |
| 12H Track | 162.400 km | Yiannis Kouros (GRE) | 15/16 Mar 1985 |  Montauban, France | [3] |
| 12H Indoor | 140.844 km | Aleksander Korotkov (RUS) | 21/22 Feb 2004 |  Lohja Citymarket, Finland | [3] |
| 24H Road | 290.221 km | Yiannis Kouros (GRE) | 2/3 May 1998 |  Basel, Switzerland | [3] |
| 24H Track | 303.506 km | Yiannis Kouros (GRE) | 4/5 Oct 1997 |  Adelaide, Australia | [3] |
| 24H Indoor | 257.576 km | Nikolai Safin (RUS) | 27/28 Feb 1993 | Podolsk, Russia | [3] |
| 48H Road | 433.095 km | Yiannis Kouros (GRE) | 2/3 May 1998 | Basel, Switzerland | [3] |
| 48H Track | 473.495 km | Yiannis Kouros (GRE) | 3–5 May 1996 | Surgeres, France | [3] |
| 48H Indoor | 426.178 km |  Tony Mangan (IRL) | 16 Mar 2007 |  Brno, Czech Republic | [3] |
I decided to dig a bit deeper and came across this amazing documentary on the man. (bottom of post)
What an incredible story. This man was rightly known as the "Running God" in Greece and the successor to Pheidippides - the ancient greek hero who ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver news of a war victory.
Yiannis Kouros was born in a poor greek family where at birth his father suspected that he was illegitimate and hence shunned him. He received no compensatory love from his mother or older siblings as well. Yiannis channeled his energies into sport - athletics. He would hang around the sports stadium all the time since he loathed going home. He was a loner and continues to be. His calling came when he read about a race from Athens to Sparta (246km) and he wanted to run it since he thought that a Greek should rightfully win that race. He not just won, he decimated the competition. He finished the race in 20 hours, 3 hours faster than the next competitor. They called it a fluke, a possessed man who could do this but once in his life. Next year he ran it even faster 20:25 again 3 hours 15 mins faster than the runner up. That timing in 1984 has still not been broken till today. THe 2014 winner ran it in 22:29 about 2 hours slower than what yiannis ran.
Post that Yiannis has broken and held every long distance or time specified records there is. If you look at the table above he doesnt have the records at distances shorter than 100 miles. That is deliberate. Yiannis considers ultra running to be anything above 100 miles, anything below that he says is just not challenging. He feels at 100 miles and beyond, the body becomes "clinically dead" and the mind takes over. Beyond this distance is what makes runners unique. He refused to run anything below this distance or below 12 hours.
A unique man who I feel is akin to Jonathan Livingston Seagull - someone who wants to explore the outer limits of his body and mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7UzmKxe3Xk
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