High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Paavo Edvard Kotila (born August 26, 1927) is a former Finnish long-distance runner, Olympian, and three-time national champion in the marathon (1955, 1956, 1961). Kotila won his second consecutive national title in 1956 with a time of 2:18:04.8.[2][nb 1] With this performance, he was ranked first in the marathon for 1956.Kotila later finished 13th in the marathon on at the 1956 Summer Olympics and won the 1960 Boston Marathon.