I’m sure Kouros was capable of running further than his 6 Day WR. It was noticeably “softer” than many of his other accomplishments which appeared untouchable for decades or still stand.
Giving context to my comment about the relative “softness” of Kouros 6 Day WR, nothing in 6 Day racing is soft…except perhaps baby food. That stuff goes down a treat.
But I digress…
Five of Kouros’ contemporaries ran over 1000km in 6 Days, pretty close to Kouros’ 1036 km. With Kouros’ Spartathlon course record, his 24 and 48 Hour WR, and many other performances, no one was anywhere near close to his marks. But not so with 6 days on the track.
Jean-Gilles Boussiquet had actually broken Kouros’ previous WR, but when Kouros regained the record he did so by adding just 2.6km to the Frenchman’s mark. Just enough to give Kouros a buffer of 6 laps of the 400 metre track, handy should any discrepancies be later discovered in the lap scoring.
If we look at Kouros’ five wins in the Sydney to Melbourne race, which was run over varied but substantially more challenging routes than the flat grass track where he set the current 6 Day WR, we get a better indication of his capabilities. All are superior performances to his 6 Day WR.
1985 Syd-Melb: Distance 960 km. Approx time 5 days + 5 hours. Ran only 76 km less than 6 Day WR, but a whopping 19 hours inside of 6 days.
1987 Syd-Melb: Distance 1060 km. Approx time 5 days + 14 hours. Ran 24 km further than 6 Day WR with over 9 hours to spare.
1988 Syd-Melb: Distance 1016 km. Approx time 5 days + 19 hours. Ran only 20 km less than 6 Day WR, but still with more than 4 hours under 6 days.
1989 Syd-Melb: Distance 1011 km. Approx time 5 days + 2 hours. Ran only 25 km less than 6 Day WR with almost a full day to spare. Certainly his best and possibly indicative of the capability of 1200 km track performance.
1990 Syd-Melb: Distance 1006 km. Approx time 5 days + 23 hours + 55 minutes. Ran 30 km less than 6 Day WR finishing marginally inside 6 days. But this one is the kicker. I’m almost certain this was the year Kouros went on strike.
With the race now handicapped and Kouros starting up to 24 hours after the other runners, the race organisers were offering daily bonuses for the “race leader on the road”. As Kouros neared the outskirts of Melbourne with a characteristically unassailable lead, it was apparent Kouros would win in well under 6 days yet again. As the finish line crowds grew (Melbourne being home to particularly large Greek community) and with the media and dignitaries assembled, Kouros simply stopped running and sat by his support vehicles. Not wanting to forego the pay bonus for being the day 6 race leader, Kouros refused to finish the race until the race management guaranteed him the bonus irrespective of his finish time. After protracted negotiations and growing discontent among the increasing numbers being kept waiting at the finish, management inevitably relented to Kouros’ demands.
It wasn’t the first or last time Kouros held race organisers over a barrel. He had a certain reputation among race directors.