| Personal information | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | 1 December 1948 [1] Badeborn, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany | ||||||||||
| Height | 1.79 m (5 ft 10+1⁄2 in) | ||||||||||
| Weight | 62 kg (137 lb) | ||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||
| Event(s) | Long-distance running | ||||||||||
| Club | SC Magdeburg | ||||||||||
Medal record
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Eckhard Lesse (born 1 December 1948) is a German former long-distance runner. Lesse represented East Germany at the 1972 Summer Olympics and won silver in men's marathon at the 1974 European Championships.
Lesse represented East Germany at the 1971 European Championships in Helsinki, placing 24th in the 10,000 m. [2] Lesse broke the East German marathon record for the first time in April 1972, running 2:13:19.4 in Karl-Marx-Stadt; [3] [4] he was the only East German selected for the 1972 Olympic marathon, [3] where he placed 25th in 2:22:49.6. [1]
Lesse broke the national record again in Manchester in June 1973, running 2:12:24. [4] [5] Later that year he placed third in the strong Fukuoka Marathon, behind Olympic champion Frank Shorter and Canada's Brian Armstrong; [6] Track & Field News ranked Lesse the world's second best marathoner that year. [7]
At the 1974 European Championships in Rome Lesse placed second to Great Britain's Ian Thompson in 2:14:57.4. [2] He placed second to Shorter in the 1974 Fukuoka Marathon, his time of 2:12:02.4 being another East German record; [4] [8] that year, he was ranked third in the world, behind Thompson and Shorter. [7] Lesse was ranked in the world's top ten for a final time in 1975, [7] when he placed fifth in Fukuoka in 2:12:42.6. [9]
Lesse remained active in sports after his athletic career, and was president of his sports club, SC Magdeburg, in late 2009 and early 2010. [10]
This list is a chronological progression of record times for the marathon. World records in the marathon are now ratified by World Athletics, the international governing body for the sport of athletics.
Derek James Clayton is a former Australian long-distance runner, born in Cumbria, England and raised in Northern Ireland.
William Henry Rodgers is an American runner, Olympian, and former record holder in the marathon. Rodgers is best known for his four victories in both the Boston Marathon, including three straight from 1978 to 1980, and 4 straight wins in the New York City Marathon, between 1976 and 1979.
The Fukuoka International Marathon is an IAAF Gold Label international men's marathon race held in Fukuoka, Japan. It was previously known as the Fukuoka International Open Marathon Championship between 1947 and 2021, when it was announced the race would be discontinued on its 75th edition. However, due to popular support, a successor race, inheriting the tradition and course of the original marathon, was established the next year.
Ian Reginald Thompson is an English long-distance runner, who gained success in marathon running. His Commonwealth Games marathon record set in 1974 remains unbeaten.
Kayoko Fukushi is a Japanese long-distance runner, who specializes in the 5000, 10,000 metres and marathon. Fukushi represented Japan at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. She was the bronze medallist in the marathon at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics. She holds a marathon best of 2:22:17 hours.
Ronald Hill MBE was a British runner and clothing entrepreneur. He was the second man to break 2:10 in the marathon; he set world records at four other distances, and laid claim to the marathon world record. He ran two Olympic Marathons, and achieved a personal marathon record of 2:09:28. In 1970, Hill won the 74th Boston Marathon in a course record 2:10:30. He also won gold medals for the marathon at the European Championships in 1969 and the Commonwealth Games in 1970. Hill laid claim to the longest streak of consecutive days running – every day for 52 years and 39 days from 1964 to 2017.
Kjell-Erik Bertil Ståhl is a retired long-distance runner from Sweden. He represented his native country twice at the Summer Olympics in the men's marathon, finishing in 19th place in Moscow. Ståhl twice won the Stockholm Marathon. He holds the Swedish marathon record with 2:10:38 set in 1983.
Toru Terasawa is a former Japanese long-distance runner who on February 17, 1963 set a world record in the marathon with a time of 2:15:16 at the Beppu Marathon. Terasawa placed second in the marathon at the 1964 Japanese Olympic trials and 15th at the 1964 Summer Olympics. Terasawa is also a two-time champion of the Fukuoka Marathon; he set a Japanese national record during his 1962 victory (2:16:18.4) and improved on it when he won in 1964 (2:14:48.2). At Fukuoka in 1966, he finished fifth (2:15:51.2) after colliding with Jim Hogan, the 1966 European marathon champion, and falling to the pavement just before the half way mark.
Albert Richard "Whitey" Michelsen was an American long-distance runner who is recognized as having set a world's best in the marathon on October 12, 1925, with a time of 2:29:01 at the inaugural Port Chester Marathon in Port Chester, New York. According to the International Association of Athletics Federations, Michelsen held this record until Fusashige Suzuki posted a 2:27:49 performance in Tokyo, Japan on March 31, 1935.
Paavo Edvard Kotila was a Finnish long-distance runner, Olympian, and three-time national champion in the marathon.
Jacqueline Hansen is a former long-distance runner from the United States who is recognized by the International Association of Athletics Federations as having set a world best in the marathon on two occasions.
Kim Merritt is a former American long-distance runner who competed in the marathon. Her career coincided with the development of women's running in the United States and she was at the forefront of distance running in the mid-1970s.
Iulia Olteanu is a Romanian former long-distance runner who competed in cross country, track and road running events.
Anne Rochelle Steely Ramirez, née Anne Rochelle Steely, is a former long-distance runner who competed internationally for the United States. She specialized in the 3,000 meters on the track and later competed in road running events.
Bedan Karoki Muchiri is a Kenyan professional long distance runner who competes in track, cross country and road running disciplines. He represented Kenya at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics.
Simon Chemoiywo is a Kenyan former long-distance runner. He competed in track, cross country and road running. At the IAAF World Cross Country Championships he twice represented Kenya: in 1994 he was the runner-up and team champion, then helped retain the team title for Kenya at the 1995 race.
Pat Dengis was a Welsh born American long-distance runner. He was AAU marathon champion in 1935, 1938 and 1939 and marathon world leader in 1938.
Hiroyuki Horibata is a Japanese long-distance runner who competes in the marathon. He holds a personal best of 2:08:24 hours for the event, set in 2012. He twice represented his country at the World Championships in Athletics, placing seventh in 2011 but failing to finish in 2013.
The 25K run is a long distance running footrace that is between the distance of a half marathon and a marathon. It was formerly an official world record distance in road running by World Athletics, but has since been downgraded to world best status. Separately, the Association of Road Racing Statisticians retains world records in the 25K distance. The ARRS holds different standards for records than World Athletics, with exclusions for certain point-to-point races and mixed sex races. As a result its women's world record is 1:26:34 by Nancy Conz, set in 1982.
