SPARTA; LACONIA-GREECE 1983 HISTORY OF THE SPARTATHLON Yiannis Kouros; who won the first Spartathlon; still holds the record time at 20: 25: 00. Kouros competed in four Spartathlons; won all four and holds the four fastest times ever recorded. In 2005; he decided to trace the steps of Pheidippides completely and ran - out of competition - the Athens-Sparta-Athens distance. PHOTO THE FIRST SPARTATHLON THE MARATHON RUNNER JOHN KOUROS IS BEING HELD BY THE MAYOR OF SPARTA JOHN MATALAS AFTER HAVING RUN 250 KILOMETERS HE STUMBLES FOR A MOMEMT. HAS COME IN FIRST RUNNING FRON ATHENS TO SPARTA AT A DISTANCE OF 250 KILOMETERS INFO: Spartathlon; during its 23 years history created a legend among the ultra-running events all over the world. From its birth back in 1983 until today thousands of runners accepted the challenge of the 246km non-stop grueling footrace but less than 1000 managed to reach the finish line. A-Z. gr presents in this article some useful tables containing historical records of Spartathlon. Here you can find details regarding the winners of past 23 years as well as best athletes and best performances of all times during this period. Yiannis Kouros dominates at every one of these tables; holding the most wins in the event having won four times the race (1983; 1984; 1986; 1990); holding the course record with 20h 25m from 1984 (an incredible record) and finally holding the four best performances in equal number of participations. Every year less than 40% of the starters pack crosses the finish line at the town of Sparta. This year (2005) the number of participants broke every previous record gathering in the starting list more than 277 runners.