Tamás Bódis runs 19:40:51 from Athens to Sparta, a Spartathlon course record
The Hungarian beat four-time winner Fotis Zisimopoulos, whose 19:55 mark he broke, by 52 minutes; Despoina Simantrakou was first woman in 24:45:43.
Photograph: the statue of Leonidas in Sparti, Greece, by Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe 44th Spartathlon left Athens at 7 am on Friday on the usual road to Sparta, 153 miles of it. Tamás Bódis of Hungary, who won the race in 2019, reached Sparta in 19:40:51 early on Saturday, the fastest anyone has covered the distance. The old mark of 19:55 belonged to Fotis Zisimopoulos of Greece, who won four years in a row from 2021 to 2024 and this time was second in 20:32:41, 52 minutes behind. Tomi Ronkainen of Finland was third in 21:26:36, Jelle Tielemans of Belgium fourth in 22:03:31 and Georgios Logothetis fifth in 22:24:41.
Despoina Simantrakou of Greece won the women's race in 24:45:43, 13th overall. Radka Churaňová of the Czech Republic was second in 26:05:56 and Lemonia Panagiotou third in 26:58:04. The organisers' finishers list, which they call the initial official record, gives those times and asks for corrections by the end of the month.
The race takes entrants on qualifying standards, among them 120 km in 12 hours or a 100-mile finish inside 21 hours for men and 22 for women.
A day and a night on tarmac, and a 153-mile record that moved by 14 minutes. Not everything long is slow to change.
Sources: International Spartathlon Association; International Spartathlon Association; iRunFar.
