Year | Date | Place | Athlete | Nationality |
Time |
1908 | July 24th | London | Johnny Hayes | USA | 2h 55m 19s |
1909 | January 1st | Yonkers, New York | Robert Fowler | USA | 2h 52m 46s |
1909 | February 12th | New York | James Clark | USA | 2h 46m 53s |
1909 | May 8th | New York | Albert Raines | USA | 2h 46m 5s |
1909 | May 26th | London | Fred Barrett | GB | 2h 42m 31s |
1913 | May 31st | London | Alexis Ahlgren | Sweden | 2h 36m 7s |
1920 | August 22nd | Antwerp | Hannes Kolehmainen | Finland | 2h 32m 36s |
1925 | October 12th | Port Chester, USA | Al Michelsen | USA | 2h 29m 2s |
1935 | March 31st | Tokyo | Fusashige Suzuki | Japan | 2h 27m 49s |
1935 | April 3rd | Tokyo | Yasuo Ikenaka | Japan | 2h 26m 44s |
1935 | November 23rd | Tokyo | Sohn Kee-Chung | Korea | 2h 26m 42s |
1947 | April 19th | Boston | Yun Bok Suh | Korea | 2h 25m 39s |
1952 | June 11th | Chiswick, UK | Jim Peters | GB | 2h 20m 43s |
1953 | June 13th | Chiswick, UK | Jim Peters | GB | 2h 18m 41s |
1953 | October 4th | Turku, Finland | Jim Peters | GB | 2h 18m 35s |
1954 | June 26th | Chiswick, UK | Jim Peters | GB | 2h 17m 40s |
1958 | August 24th | Stockholm | Sergey Popov | USSR | 2h 15m 17s |
1963 | February 17th | Beppu, Japan | Toru Terasawa | Japan | 2h 15m 16s |
1963 | June 15th | Chiswick, UK | Buddy Edelen | USA | 2h 14m 28s |
1964 | June 13th | Chiswick, UK | Basil Heatley | GB | 2h 13m 55s |
1964 | October 21st | Tokyo | Abebe Bikila | Ethiopia | 2h 12m 12s |
1965 | June 12th | Chiswick, UK | Morio Shigematsu | Japan | 2h 12m 0s |
1967 | December 3rd | Fukuoka, Japan | Derek Clayton | Australia | 2h 9m 37s |
1969 | May 30th | Antwerp | Derek Clayton | Australia | 2h 8m 34s |
1981 | December 6th | Fukuoka, Japan | Robert de Castella | Australia | 2h 8m 18s |
1984 | October 21st | Chicago | Steve Jones | GB | 2h 8m 5s |
1985 | April 20th | Rotterdam | Carlos Lopes | Portugal | 2h 7m 12s |
1988 | April 17th | Rotterdam | Belayneh Dinsamo | Ethiopa | 2h 6m 50s |
1998 | September 20th | Berlin | Ronaldo da Costa | Brazil | 2h 6m 5s |
1999 | October 24th | Chicago | Khalid Khannouchi | USA | 2h 5m 42s |
2002 | April 14th | London | Khalid Khannouchi | USA | 2h 5m 38s |
2003 | September 28th | Berlin | Paul Tergat | Kenya | 2h 4m 55s |
NOTE. Some cautions are necessary when comparing times in this event.
The marathon has one major difference from nearly all other athletics events in that it is run over 'ordinary' roads rather than a regular track and this has two distinct effects: |
1. Though every effort is made to run the race over level ground and the start and finish, being at the same place, ensure that the total distance travelled 'uphill' is the same as the total distance travelled 'downhill' it is unlikely that these two effects cancel each other out. |
2. The distance should be 26 miles 385 yards or 42,195 metres but, because of the physical constraints of using existing roads, the distances covered may not be exactly the same.
However, the variation from this is not likely to exceed one-half of one per cent (which is equivalent to about 4 seconds in 2 hours). | |