Hungary's Tamás Bódis won the 42nd Spartathlon in a course-record 19 hours, 40 minutes and 51 seconds, finishing the 246km run from Athens to Sparta a little under 14 minutes inside the previous best. Hungarian outlets put the improvement at between 14 and 15 minutes, with one giving the exact margin as 14 minutes 11 seconds. The mark stands as one of the most significant results in the race's history, given how long the fastest times at Spartathlon have resisted challenge.
The record he broke belonged to Greece's Fotis Zisimopoulos, who set it in 2023 and won the race four times between 2021 and 2024. Zisimopoulos was in the field again and finished second, 51 minutes 50 seconds behind Bódis, so the new mark came in a straight race with the man who had held it rather than in a solitary run against the clock. A total of 381 runners from 48 countries started on September 26-27, and 276 of them completed the distance.
Bódis, who is 38 and from Ózd, arrived with a season that pointed towards a big performance. He set a course record at Ultrabalaton earlier in 2026, finished third at the Badwater ultramarathon in California in July, and Hungarian reports credit him with national records at 100km and in a six-hour track race. This was his second Spartathlon victory; he also won in 2019. Only two Hungarian men have won the race since it began in 1983, Bódis himself and János Bogár, who triumphed in 1991.
In the women's race Greece's Despoina Simantrakou was first to the statue of King Leonidas in 24:45:43, a home victory in a race that draws its identity from Greek history. The event commemorates the run attributed to Pheidippides, who according to legend travelled from Athens to Sparta to seek help against the Persians. Last year's women's champion was Andrea Mórocza of Hungary, and Hungarian women have a strong record in the race, with Szilvia Lubics winning it three times.
The finishing rate of roughly 72 per cent is a reminder that the Spartathlon remains a race of attrition, with strict cut-offs at each checkpoint along the route. For the elite end of the field, Bódis's run resets expectations of what is achievable over the distance, and it will be watched closely by the leading Greek and European ultrarunners who will now be racing a new benchmark when the race returns next September.