Lithuanian runner Aleksandr Sorokin shattered the 11-hour barrier for running 100 miles, and set multiple ultramarathon world records, at the 2022 Spartanion race in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Sorokin already holds a number of world records, for 24 hours, 100 miles, and 12 hours. Late on Thursday night, January 6, 2022, in Israel, Sorokin did it once again, setting a (to be confirmed) new 100-mile (160.934 kilometers) world record in 10 hours, 51 minutes, and 39 seconds, as well as a new 12-hour world record by running 110.24 miles (177.41 kilometers) in that time.
Sorokin held an incredible average pace of about 6:32 minutes per mile (about 4:04 minutes per kilometer) for 12 hours.
This effort breaks his own previous world records of 11:14:56 for 100 miles and 105.825 miles (170.309 kilometers) for 12 hours, improving those respective records by about 22 minutes and about 4.4 miles (about 7 kilometers).
[You can now also read more in our interview with Sorokin about his effort.]
Aleksandr Sorokin at the 2022 Spartanion race in Tel Aviv, Israel, on his way to breaking his own 100-mile and 12-hour world records. Photo: Tomer Feder/Sport Photography
Beginning on a Thursday in order for Sabbath-keepers to run the event, the Spartanion was created as a qualifying event for the famous Spartathlon, a 153-mile (246 kilometers) ultramarathon in Greece. The event’s flat-and-fast course consists of a 1,460-meter lap route with just three meters of elevation gain per lap around Tel Aviv’s Gane Yeshu’a Park.
Sorokin proved once again that he is one of the best ultrarunners in the world, looking smooth and evenly paced throughout the event. It appears he was wearing the Nike Air Zoom Alphafly Next% Flyknit, a carbon-plated road racing shoe.
An overhead view of the 2022 Spartanion course in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo: Tomer Feder/Sport Photography
Sorokin has been on a record-breaking tear over the last year. Back in April of 2021, he set new world records for 100 miles and 12 hours at the 2021 Centurion Running Track 100 Mile in England. Check out iRunFar’s interview with him after that effort.
More recently, he broke the 24-hour world record at the UltraPark Weekend 24 Hour event in Poland on August 28 and 29, 2021, completing 192.2 miles (309.4 kilometers). You can also check out our interview with Sorokin following that 24-hour world record.
See the live tracking page and Sorokin’s Strava file for more details.
A Strava screenshot of Aleksandr Sorokin’s effort at the 2022 Spartanion race in Israel.
Runners make their way around the 2022 Spartanion course. Aleksandr Sorokin is on the right in green shorts. Photo: Tomer Feder/Sport Photography
