| Sergei Popov | |
| Birth Name: | Sergei Konstantinovich Popov |
| Birth Date: | 21 September 1930 |
| Birth Place: | Khoronkhoy, Troitskosavsky aimak, Buryat ASSR, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union[1] |
| Death Place: | Saint Petersburg, Russia |
| Height: | 160 cm |
| Weight: | 55 kg |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
| Sport: | Athletics |
| Event: | Marathon |
| Pb: | 2:15:17 (1958)[2] |
| Show-Medals: | yes |
Sergei Konstantinovich Popov (Russian: Сергей Константинович Попов, 21 September 1930 – 25 June 1995) was a Russian marathon runner. He won a gold medal at the 1958 European Championships setting a new world record at 2:15:17; this record stood for more than two years and remained the Soviet national record until 1970. He also set a world record in Moscow, on June 15, 1958, for 30 kilometers, running 1:32:58.8.[3] Popov won the Soviet marathon title in 1957, when he ran the world's fastest marathon of the year in 2:19:50 in Moscow,[4] 1958 and 1959, and placed second in 1962 and third in 1963.[5] In 1959, he set the course record at the Košice Peace Marathon, the third year in a row he ran the world's fastest time. He finished fifth at the 1960 Summer Olympics when the winner, Ethiopia's Abebe Bikila, broke Popov's world record by less than a second.[1]
| Representing the | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Soviet Athletics Championships | Moscow, Soviet Union | 1st | Marathon | 2:19:50.0 | |
| 1958 | Stockholm, Sweden | 1st | Marathon | 2:15:17.0 | ||
| 1959 | Košice, Czechoslovakia | 1st | Marathon | 2:17:45 | ||