Kjell-Erik Ståhl

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