Ioannis Lavrentis

The 1896 Olympic marathon (identity of the three runners unclear)

Ioannis Lavrentis ( Greek Ιωάννης Λαυρέντης ) was a Greek athlete who took part as a marathon runner in the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

Since no marathons were run before the first modern Olympic Games, a test run with eleven Greek athletes was organized on March 10, 1896 and was won by Charilaos Vasilakos in 3 hours, 18 minutes and 0 seconds. On March 24th of the year, just a few days before the start of the Olympic Games, the Greeks carried out another test run for 38 runners, which was officially announced as a qualifying run for participation in the Games. Lavrentis won and improved the unofficial " marathon world best time " (at that time, however, still ran over 40 km ) to 3 hours, 11 minutes and 27 seconds.

In the Olympic race on the afternoon of April 9th, from the marathon to Athens, Lavrentis was one of 13 Greeks in the 17-strong starting field and was initially able to place fourth to seventh in a group of three compatriots and then, after approx. 52 minutes of running, as the fastest Greek to hold fifth position. However, on the 24th kilometer Lavrentis gave up and was one of the eight runners (including three of the four foreigners) who did not reach the finish. The winner was the Greek Spyridon Louis (see there for a description of the race).

Web links

• Ioannis Lavrentis in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ two articles, some of which are verbatim, both undated (Spanish; accessed March 23, 2008):
   Jorge Alfonso (no date). Primera maratón. Lo sucedido in detail. Bohemia .
   Patricio Strauss (undated). El maratón en los juegos olímpicos - parte 2. Atenas 1896. FCmax. Buenos Aires . ( Memento of the original from July 7, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ David Randall (August 8, 2004). Olympics Special: The Original Marathon Man. The Independent on Sunday . (English; accessed March 23, 2008)
3. ↑ Ολυμπιακός Μαραθώνιος 1896 on www.sansimera.gr . ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Greek; accessed March 23, 2008)