Cleave Books World Records for Marathon (Men) 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). Go to the top World Records Index