İsmail Akçay

İsmail Akçay — Biography

İsmail Akçay (born 9 July 1942 in Balıkesir) is a Turkish former marathon runner. Born in the village of Akçakaya in Balıkesir Province, he attended the industrial vocational high school in Balıkesir after primary school and then the sergeants' school in Ankara, where he took up athletics and specialised in the marathon.

In 1966 he won the Balkan Games and finished 16th at the European Championships in Budapest. In 1967 he was second at the Las Vegas Marathon, fourth at the Athens Marathon and a silver medallist at the Mediterranean Games. In 1968 he won the Balkan Games again, placed fourth at the Mexico City Olympics in 2:25:19 and closed the season with a personal best of 2:13:44 at the Fukuoka Marathon.

He won in Athens in 1970, took another Balkan Games title and a Mediterranean bronze in 1971, and shared the 1973 Balkan Games victory with fellow countryman Hüseyin Aktaş. He was Turkish marathon champion in 1966, 1969, 1970 and 1972, and 10,000 m champion in 1970. Known as the "Athlete of the Century", he lends his name to an athletics track in Balıkesir and an annual road race held there.