Sabastian Sawe runs under two hours for first time in marathon history

Sabastian Sawe broke the two-hour barrier in the marathon, winning the London Marathon in an unofficial 1 hour, 59 minutes, 30 seconds.

Sawe shattered the world record of 2:00:35 set by the late Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon.

Another Kenyan, Eliud Kipchoge, ran the marathon distance in 1:59:40.2 in 2019, but that did not come in a race under world record conditions.

The runner-up on Sunday, Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, ran 1:59:41 in his marathon debut.

The previous mark of 2:00:35 had been set by the late Kelvin Kiptum at the Chicago Marathon in 2024. Kiptum also posted a London course record of 2:01:25.

But Sawe did not just break the record; he obliterated it. In doing so, he retained his London Marathon title and became the first man in history to run a sub-two-hour marathon in an official, competitive race.

And the story does not end there.

Ethiopia’s Kejelcha also dipped under the historic barrier, clocking 1:59:41 to finish second, an unprecedented performance that made him the first Ethiopian to achieve the feat, yet still not enough for victory.

For context, on 12 October, 2019, Eliud Kipchoge became the first human to run a marathon in under two hours, recording 1:59:40.2 at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna.

However, that performance was not ratified as an official world record by World Athletics due to its controlled conditions, rotating pacemakers, a laser-guided car, and a closed-course setup.

Now, the barrier has fallen in a legitimate race.

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They call Sawe the “silent assassin,” and for good reason. Quietly, methodically, he has risen to the pinnacle of the sport.

Coming into the race, he hinted he was in similar shape to his Berlin attempt last September, where unseasonably warm temperatures in the mid-20s denied him a shot at the record.

This time, everything aligned.

Notably, he laced up the latest Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 supershoes, which weigh an astonishingly light 96 grams and offered even greater efficiency than their predecessors.

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Sawe went through 5km in 14:14 and 10km in 28:35, already under world record pace, but controlled rather than reckless. By halfway, he clocked 1:00:29, a bold yet calculated split that positioned him perfectly for a historic finish.

What stood out was not just the speed, but the consistency. From 10km to beyond 30km, he maintained an almost metronomic rhythm, hovering between 4:34 and 4:36 per mile, an unforgiving pace sustained with remarkable composure.

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And when the race typically begins to unravel, Sawe did the opposite.

He held firm through 35km in 1:39:57 and then found another gear. Over the final stretch from 40km to the finish, he surged at approximately 4:33 per mile, stopping the clock at a staggering 1:59:30.

History was not just made in London; it was rewritten.