Kenyan runner Sabastian Sawe became the first athlete to break the two-hour barrier in a competitive marathon on Sunday, winning the London Marathon in 1 hour 59 minutes 30 seconds and erasing the men’s world record by more than a minute.
Sawe, 30, took Kelvin Kiptum’s mark of 2:00:35 — set in Chicago in 2023 — off the books in a race that had been forecast to test the long-pursued sub-two-hour ceiling. He passed halfway in 1:00:29 and ran the second half in 59:01, surging clear in the closing miles to finish well ahead of Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha (1:59:41) and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo (2:00:28). Three men finished under or at the previous world-record pace.
“I am feeling good. I am so happy. It is a day to remember for me,” Sawe told the BBC at the finish.
The performance is the first time the two-hour barrier has been broken in an official, mass-participation, record-eligible road race. Eliud Kipchoge’s 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019 was run under specially designed pacing and aerodynamic conditions and was not ratified as a world record. Sawe’s London time, run on a World Athletics-certified course with a standard professional field, is expected to be ratified.
In the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa won in 2:15:41 to set a women’s world record on a record-eligible course. The 2026 London Marathon also drew its largest mass field in event history.
Sri Lanka also celebrated recent athletic success with Rumesh Tharanga winning javelin gold in Nairobi.
Sources: BBC Sport, NewsFirst (via BBC).
