Kenya’s Sawe Makes Marathon History

Sebastian Sawe of Kenya has become the first person to break the fabled two-hour barrier in an official marathon.

In a heart-racking moment in sports history, Sawe smashed the men’s world record by 65 seconds by winning the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds on Sunday, April 26.

The Kenyan athlete said, “What comes today is not for me alone, but for all of us today in London.” The second-place finisher, Yomif Kejelcha from Ethiopia, also dipped under 2 hours by crossing the line in 1:59:41 in his first-ever marathon, while Jacob Kiplimo from Uganda broke the previous world-record time, which was set by Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago in 2023 by seven seconds, finishing in 2:00:28.

The 29-year-old Sawe, who retained his title in London, said it was a day to remember for him and appreciated the huge crowds lining the streets of the British capital to cheer him on. He ran faster as the race went on, covering the second half of the marathon in 59 minutes and 1 second.

He said, “I think they help a lot because if it was not for them, you don’t feel like you are so loved … with them calling, you feel so happy and strong.”

Sawe pulled clear with Kejelcha after 30 kilometres and then made his solo break in the final two kilometres, sprinting along the finish on The Mall to loud cheers. In less than two hours, he broke the two-hour marathon record; breaking it has been a long time coming.

However, in 2019, when Eliud Kipchoge, the Kenyan long-distance runner, achieved the feat in Vienna, it was in a specially tailored race called the 1.59 Challenge, arranged by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe under favourable conditions on a 6-mile (9.6-kilometre) circuit, using rotating pacemakers. What this means is that it wasn’t classed as an official race setting, so Kipchoge’s time of 1:59:40 didn’t go in the record book.

Surprisingly, Sawe surpassed that time by 10 seconds on a mostly flat course across London in dry, sunny conditions.

“The goalposts have literally just moved for marathon running,” Paula Radcliffe, a former winner of the London Marathon, said during commentary of the race for the BBC. At the turn of the century, the world’s best time for the men’s marathon was 2:05:42, set by Khalid Khannouchi in Chicago in 1999.

Khannouchi broke his own record by four seconds in 2002, the last time the fastest men’s marathon was run in London, and it has been gradually diminished over the last 24 years by a succession of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, including Haile Gebrselassie, Wilson Kipsang, Kipchoge, and, most recently, Kiptum.

Assefa wins fastest-ever women ‘s-only marathon. A record was also set in the women’s race, with Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa pulling away with about 500 meters remaining to win in 2:15:41 to defend the title in the fastest-ever time in a women ’s-only marathon.

However, it was 16 seconds slower than the course record set by Paula Radcliffe in 2003 when it was a mixed race. Swiss double in wheelchair races. The wheelchair races produced a Swiss double. Marcel Hug stormed to a sixth straight men’s title and eighth overall, while Catherine Debrunner narrowly defeated Tatyana McFadden to defend her title in a close finish.