Yiannis Kouros ( el, Γιάννης Κούρος, ; born 13 February 1956 in Tripoli,

Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label= Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, wh ...

) is a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

ultramarathon runner based in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. He is sometimes given the

epithets An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

"Running god", "

Pheidippides Pheidippides ( grc-gre, Φειδιππίδης, , ; "Son of Pheídippos") or Philippides (Φιλιππίδης) is the central figure in the story that inspired a modern sporting event, the marathon race. Pheidippides is said to have run from ...

' Successor" or "Son of Pheidippides". Kouros holds many men's outdoor road world records from 100 to 1,000 miles and many road and track records from

12 hours ''12 Hours'' (Spanish: ''12 Horas'') is a 2001 Puerto Rican movie. It was written and directed by Raúl Marchand Sánchez, and marked both his screenwriting and directorial debut. The movie follows 12 hours or one night in the life of a taxi dr ...

to 6 days. In 1991, he starred as

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 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. Kouros held Australian citizenship for part of his running career and was inducted into the Australian Ultra Runners Association’s Hall of Fame in 2019.Kouros inducted into Australian ultra running hall of fame
/ref> Concerning the secret of his success, Kouros claims, "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 books, ''Symblegmata'' ("Clusters") and ''The Six-Day Run of the Century''.

World records

According to th
International Association of Ultrarunners
.

Distance

Time races

References

External links

Yiannis Kouros official page

Yiannis Kouros – Greek Greatness
1956 births Living people Greek male long-distance runners Athletes from Tripoli, Greece Greek ultramarathon runners Greek male poets Athletes from Melbourne Male ultramarathon runners {{Greece-athletics-bio-stub

World records

Distance

Time races

See also

References

External links