First place travelled to Germany.

The marathon in Košice 40 years ago was exceptionally interesting. Women stood at the starting line for only the second time, and German Christa Vahlensieck, later a 5-time Košice Peace Marathon winner and for a time the world record holder in this then-emerging women’s running discipline, was just beginning to rule in her field.

So, it became an all-German day. Hans-Joachim Truppel made his seventh start in the men’s competition here in Košice and finally scored a victory. All this took place before the eyes of the head of IAAF Adrian Paulen as well as many other guests and spectators filling the city streets and the football stadium of Lokomotiva Košice, which for many years was the starting point and finish line of this marathon.

The whole of Czechoslovakia’s elite was also there, for whom this was the peak of the domestic running season in the battle for the title of Champion of the republic. Košice’s own Pavol Madár was the best on that day. Although he finished in the unpopular fourth place overall, the fact that he left all of his competitors wearing the national team’s jersey behind him could have warmed his heart. The marathon at that time was definitively opened for hobby runners.

However, the four-hour time limit for making the trip from Košice to Seňa and back remained valid. In the end, 792 men and 17 women did so successfully.

STORIES OF NINE DECADES