Kjell-Erik Bertil Ståhl (17 February 1946 – 5 August 2025) was a long-distance runner from Sweden. He represented his native country twice at the Summer Olympics (1980 and 1984) in the men's marathon, finishing in 19th place in Moscow. Ståhl twice won the Stockholm Marathon. He held the Swedish marathon record with a time of 2:10:38, set in 1983, until it was surpassed in 2019.
He holds the Single Age World Record in the marathon for men who are 49 years of age, at 2:19:47, set on 10 June 1995 in Stockholm (source: Association of Road Racing Statisticians, updated 1 Nov 2019). In 2007, the German issue of Runners World featured an article about him. In one 12-month period, between August 1981 and August 1982, he ran 14 marathons with an average finishing time of 2:16:11. Between 1979 and 1998, he completed 101 marathons. In 70 of those, he finished in under two hours and twenty minutes, winning 17. He won the 1986 Stockholm marathon at the age of 40 in 2:12:33. In 1983, three weeks before the World Championship in Helsinki, he ran 190 km in a week, while employed full time.
His personal bests included:
800m 1:56.8 (1967) 1,500m 3:54.5 (1973) 3,000m steeplechase 8:46.7 (1974) 5000m 14:11.9 min (1979) 10,000m 29:48.0 min (1979) Marathon in 2:10:38 (1983)
Achievements Representing 1980Olympic Games Moscow, Soviet Union19thMarathon2:17:44 1981Beijing MarathonBeijing, PR China 1stMarathon2:15:20Frankfurt Marathon Frankfurt, West Germany 1stMarathon2:13:20New York City Marathon New York, United States12thMarathon2:13:31https://www.arrs.run/MaraRank/ATM_Mara1981.htm Course 150 m short on remeasurementFukuoka MarathonFukuoka, Japan12thMarathon2:14:131982Stockholm Marathon Stockholm, Sweden 1stMarathon2:19:20Boston MarathonBoston, United States5thMarathon2:12:47European Championships Athens, Greece10thMarathon2:20:36 Rome City Marathon Rome, Italy8thMarathon2:15:24https://www.arrs.run/MaraRank/ATM_Mara1982.htm Course remeasured as 42.084 km, 111m short1983World Championships Helsinki, Finland4thMarathon2:10:38 1984Olympic Games Los Angeles, United States—MarathonDNF 1986Stockholm Marathon Stockholm, Sweden 1stMarathon2:12:33European Championships Stuttgart, West Germany9thMarathon2:13:14 1994European Championships Helsinki, Finland—MarathonDNF
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