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World Records

World Records (Marathons completed in Countries)

Dec 01, 2024

 

The core principles and bylaws of the Country Club require that all members recognize, respect and honor the accomplishments of our members and all runners. For this reason we believe it is important to recognize and record those achievements, many of which are ‘unofficial’ World Records. Although they may not be certified by Guinness World Records, they have been verified by the Country Club. However, it is the responsibility of all runners to keep and maintain their stats in case there may be a dispute.

 

Marathon running – and especially running marathons in countries - is changing rapidly. The Internet makes it simpler and easier to find and register for marathons. Clubs such as ours make it simpler and easier to find runners to participate in a new or club marathon in a country that had no official marathon. And now Adventure Tour operators are organizing tours with multiple events in a short period! None of these benefits existed for our pioneer runners. Prior to the Internet, it was difficult to find marathons and impossible to find other runners with similar interests to organize a marathon in a new country. Thus we must recognize how much more difficult it was for our pioneer runners and respect and honor the accomplishments of those pioneer runners even though they may not comply with many of the new guidelines and rules that exist today!

 

The categories listed below are not all-inclusive. Other categories may be suggested for consideration. Runners may submit their stats and lists for verification and inclusion in these categories. Categories will be limited to five entries initially.

 

Most No of Countries Completed

 

Brent Weigner                       198                    Nov 24, 2024

Klaus Westphal                     171                    Jul 30, 2023

Wojciech Machnik                164                    Dec 01, 2024

Yen Nguyen                           144                    Jun 19, 2024

Janos Kis                                 142                  Oct 27, 2024

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John Wallace                          132                    Apr 08, 2017

Wally Herman                        099                    Mar 05, 2006

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Chronological History of the World Record for the Most No of Countries completed.

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Wally Herman                     30                 May 27, 1989

Wally Herman                     99                 Mar 05, 2006

John Wallace                      100                Feb 07, 2009

John Wallace                      132                Apr 08, 2017

Brent Weigner                   133                Jun 18, 2017

Brent Weigner                   137                Jul 31, 2017

Klaus Westphal                  138               Aug 05, 2017

Klaus Westphal                  139               Aug 19, 2017

Brent Weigner                    140               Sep 12, 2017

Runners completing 100 Countries

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This category provides a historical record of runners and the date they completed 100 countries.

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John Wallace                      Feb 07, 2009

Klaus Westphal                 Sep 27, 2015

Brent Weigner                   Feb 14, 2016

Edson Sanches                  Sep 17, 2016

Peter Bennett                    Nov 13, 2016

Yen Nguyen                       Nov 13, 2016

Rich Holmes                       Jun 18, 2017

Janos Kis                             Aug 02, 2017

Giuseppe Raguso              Aug 29, 2018

Tenho Lauri                        Sep 16, 2018

Juergen Kuhlmey               Nov 25, 2018

Edit Kiss                               Dec 01, 2018

Dieter Elster                        May 04, 2019

Dan Micola                          Aug 5, 2019

Vagn Kirkelund                   Jan 14, 2020

Lichu Sloan                         Feb 23, 2020

Wojciech Machnik             Aug 14, 2021

Philippe Waroux                Oct 17, 2021

Mario Sagasser                  Mar 24, 2024

Deborah Lazerson            Apr 21, 2024

Anton Reiter                      Nov 30, 2024

Most No of Countries completed in 1 year

 

Wojciech Machnik                67                             Dec 07, 2019

Dan Micola                            58                             Jan 14, 2018

Tristan Miller                         42                             Dec 27, 2010

Brent Weigner                       37                             Dec 17, 2017

Anders Forselius                   33                             Apr 06, 2014

 

 

John Wallace                          31                            May 21, 2000

Tad Lancucki                         15                             May 15, 1999

Wally Herman                       12                             Oct 25, 1987

Most No of Capital Cities completed

 

Brent Weigner                   107                       Nov 24, 2024

Yen Nguyen                        95                        May 27, 2023

Peter Bennett                     92                       Sep 04, 2021

Klaus Westphal                  91                        Jul 30, 2023

Dieter Elster                       89                       Nov 03, 2024

 

 

 

 

John Wallace                      78                          Feb 02, 2016

Wally Herman                     61                          Mar 06, 2006

Most No of Countries completed in Europe

 

 

Jurgen Sinthofen               56                          Dec 02, 2017

John Wallace                      55                          May 25, 2014

Mario Sagasser                 55                           Jan 19, 2019

Jaap Van de Berg               55                          Jan 19, 2019

Janos Kis                             55                          Jan 19, 2019

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Wally Herman                     44                          Jul 17, 2004

Tad Lancucki                       43                          Aug 30, 2009

Most No of Countries completed in North America

 

Brent Weigner                    32                        May 20, 2023

Klaus Westphal                  26                        Jun 18, 2022

Wojtek Machnik                 24                        Jan 14, 2024

Rich Holmes                       23                         Mar 13, 2019

John Wallace                      22                         Feb 02, 2017

Yen Nguyen                       22                          Jun 18, 2022       

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Wally Herman                    16                          Mar 29, 2000

Most No of Countries completed in South America

 

Brent Weigner                   16                          Jun 03, 2018

Dieter Elster                       15                         Mar 17, 2024

John Wallace                      13                          Nov 14, 2015

Peter Bennett                    13                          Nov 18, 2018

Yen Nguyen                        13                         Nov 18, 2018

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Wally Herman                    08                          Oct 27, 1996

Most No of Countries completed in Oceania

 

Brent Weigner                  13                           Jul 21, 2023

John Wallace                      9                            Apr 08, 2017

Dieter Elster                       9                            Jul 30, 2023

Wally Herman                    8                            Jul 27, 1999

Peter Bennett                    8                            Aug 27, 2017

Yen Nguyen                       8                            Aug 27, 2017

Wojtek Machnik                8                            Aug 27, 2023                   

Most No of Countries completed in Asia

 

Brent Weigner                     45                         Jan 20, 2023

Klaus Westphal                   42                          Jan 05, 2023

Janos Kis                               42                          Jan 20, 2023

Wojtek Machnik                  42                          Dec 01, 2024

Dieter Elster                        33                          Sep 10, 2024

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John Wallace                       25                          Dec 16, 2016

Wally Herman                     16                         Mar 05, 2006

Most No of Countries completed in Africa

 

Brent Weigner                    39                        Nov 24, 2024

Dieter Elster                       28                        Nov 03, 2024

Klaus Westphal                  27                         Aug 21, 2022

Wojtek Machnik                24                         Aug 06, 2024

Dayo Akinbode                 21                          Nov 03, 2022

      

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Wally Herman                      07                          Feb 26, 2001

25 Countries in the Alphabet Completed    (English spelling, max 25 since no country starts with ‘X’ and limited to 10 entries)

 

Wally Herman                                             Oct 31, 1999

Jurgen Sinthofen                                         Mar 12, 2020

Brent Weigner                                             Mar 12, 2020

Dan Micola                                                   Mar 12, 2020

Wojciech Machnik                                       Sep 11, 2021

Vagn Kirkelund                                            Apr 17, 2024

Dieter Elster                                                 Apr 17, 2024 

Ziyad Rahim                                                 Oct 13, 2024

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Continents Completed        (Completed a marathon in all countries on a continent - limited to 10 entries)

 

Antarctica

Harry Johnson       Jan 1995                      Anthony Slavic             Jan 1995                       

Todd Henry            Jan 1995                      Gerald Radlauer          Jan 1995         

Joe Schroeder        Jan 1995                      Sam Shirey                   Jan 1995

Bob Cowdy             Jan 1995                      Bill Galbrecht               Jan 1995

John Bozung          Jan 1995                       Whiney Kemper          Jan 1995

 

 

 

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Wally Herman       Jan 1995

John Wallace         Feb 1997

Tad Lancucki         Feb 1999

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Europe

John Wallace                   May 2014               Unto Peltoniemi                Jan 2019

Jurgen Sinthofen             Dec 2017               Doris Sagasser                  Jan 2019

Mario Sagasser                Jan 2019                Brent Weigner                  May 2019

Jaap Van de Berg             Jan 2019                 Klaus Westphal                Sep 2022

Janos Kis                            Jan 2019                Vagn Kirkelund                Oct 2022

 

 

 

South America

Brent Weigner                                                   Jun 2018

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North America

Brent Weigner                                                   May 20, 2023

Couples Categories

 

Most No of Countries completed

 

Peter Bennett & Yen Nguyen                     140 & 144

Janos Kis & Edit Kiss                                     142 & 117

Mario & Doris Sagasser                               101 & 98

Dave & Linda Major                                      64 & 56

Juhani & Maria Aho                                       64 & 47

Martin Geicsnek &

Helga Marwan-Schlosser                             45 & 47

Enzo Torti & Daniela Gallia                          42  & 45

Christian & Marjorie Di Domenico             33

Unto & Outi Peltoniemi                                88 & 30

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Guidelines for counting Capital Cities, Countries & Continents

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Check the Approved Countries page for the list of countries approved by the Country Club and the continent that they are considered to be part of and also the capital city.

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Capital Cities

If a marathon starts, finishes or passes through a capital city it counts!

Typically a runner will count the first & only marathon run in a country for that country. It may not include the capital city? However, if a runner completes another marathon in that country and it does include the capital city, it can count for the capital city. However the Principle Rule must be complied to: a Country and a Capital City can only be counted ONCE! The Approved Countries page also lists the capital cities of all approved countries.

President’s Comments on the World Records List    (Oct 22, 2015)

 

Thanks to runners all over the world who submitted stats for the World Records List. I believe that the World Records List is now fairly stable, accurate, and representative of the records and achievements of runners in our Sport.

 

I am pleased and proud that our Club is able to provide this important historical record for runners in our Sport. I am very happy and proud that the World Records List remembers and honors pioneer runners in our Sport. For example, Wally Herman, one of the true pioneers of our Sport, still holds two World Records! Wally’s WR of running 25 countries of the alphabet (set in Oct 1999) lasted for 21 years! Wally was fortunate to run Yugoslavia.  I did not believe that WR would be broken or matched in my lifetime but thanks to the efforts of an Adventure Tour Company owned by a CC member, a one-of marathon was organized in Yemen in Mar 2020 allowing a few runners to tie Wally's WR.

 

Another exciting and important benefit of the World Records List is that it provides an incentive and challenge - along with specific records - for runners in our Sport to break. It is inevitable that most of these WRs will be broken (some many times over) in the next few decades due to the growing popularity of our Sport and many more marathons and countries to run than any time in the past.

 

It is important that the World Records List be maintained as a historical record of our Sport.

In effort to ensure the history of our Sport is preserved the personal records of one of the pioneer runners of our Sport is used as a baseline in each category. Wally Herman is recognized as a true pioneer of our Sport. He established WRs for every category listed in the World Records List long before our Sport was even a Sport! In many categories his WR still ranks in the top five – and in those categories where his WR has been broken many times, his previous WR is listed as a baseline. This provides an interesting and historical insight into his amazing records and achievements. It is interesting to compare the records of pioneer runners with current WRs while keeping in mind that it was difficult to find marathons and many countries did not offer marathons – “in the old days”!

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