Yiannis Kouros

Yiannis Kouros

Yiannis Kouros in 2008
Personal information
Born (1956-02-13) February 13, 1956
Tripoli, Greece
Website http://www.yianniskouros.gr/index.php/en/
Sport
Sport Track and Field
Event(s) 24-hour run, 48-hour run, 6-day race

Yiannis Kouros (Greek: Γιάννης Κούρος; born February 13, 1956 in Tripoli, Greece) is a Greek ultramarathon runner based in Melbourne. He is sometimes called the "Running God" or "Pheidippides Successor". He holds many men's outdoor road world records from 100 to 1,000 miles and many road and track records from 12 hours to 6 days.[1][2] In 1991, he starred as Pheidippides in the movie The Story of the Marathon: A Hero's Journey, which chronicles the history of marathon running. Kouros came to prominence when he won the Spartathlon in 1984 in record time[3] and the Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon in 1985 in a record time of 5 days, 5 hours, 7 minutes and 6 seconds. He beat the previous record held by Cliff Young.[4]

Kouros says that his secret is that "when other people get tired, they stop. I don't. I take over my body with my mind. I tell it that it's not tired and it listens."

Kouros has also written over 1,000 poems (several of which appear in his book Symblegmata (Clusters)) and the book The Six-Day Run of the Century.

World records

According to the International Association of Ultrarunners, as of February 2013.

Distance

100 miles Road 11h 46min 37s 13.665 km/h
1000 km Track 5d 16h 17min 00s 7.338 km/h
1000 km Road 5d 20h 13min 40s 7.131 km/h
1000 miles Road 10d 10h 30min 36s 6.424 km/h

Time races

12 h Road 162.543 km 13.545 km/h
24 h Road 290.221 km 12.093 km/h
24 h Track 303.506 km 12.646 km/h
48 h Road 433.095 km 9.023 km/h
48 h Track 473.797 km 9.875 km/h
6 days Road 1028.370 km 7.142 km/h
6 days Track 1038.851 km 7.214 km/h

See also

References

  1. "World Best Performances" (PDF). International Association of Ultrarunners. October 2012.
  2. "IAU World (age) best performances" (PDF). 29 January 2015. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  3. "Japan's Ryoichi Sekiya wins Spartathlon race". USA Today. AP. 26 September 2009. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
  4. Potter, David (18 April 1985) Melbourne's Greeks welcome their Marathon man; The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 15 February 2010.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.