LONDON, ENGLAND, April 26 — Sabastian Sawe wrote himself into track and road running history when he became the first man to run the marathon in under 2 hours, winning in 1:59:30.
Taking the honors in a race of staggering, and unexpected, quality, Sawe led home a total of four men under 2:02:00.
He took 1:05 off the former WR set by his late compatriot Kelvin Kiptum at the ’23 Chicago Marathon as well as 1:55 from Kiptum’s London course record from earlier in 2023.
Not surprisingly, Sawe’s feat — and he’s now 4-for-4 over 26.2 miles — drew comparisons with other memorable and iconic break barrier-breaking performances.
No one at the finish line was accusing the British host broadcaster commentators Steve Cram and Paula Radcliffe — both former world champions and WR-holders — of excessive hyperbole when they mentioned it in the same sentence with Roger Bannister going under 4 minutes for the mile for the first time.
It was a great day for Sawe’s bank balance as well.
He won $355,000 in prize money and bonuses, in addition to an expected windfall from his shoe sponsor adidas — not least as there was a lot of focus on the newly released super-lightweight Adizero Adios Pro 3 on his feet — making it the biggest ever one-day pay day for a track athlete.
By comparison, he banked almost double the official salary of the Kenyan president William Ruto, which comes in at a mere $192,200, while Sawe pocketed around 100 times the Kenyan average annual wage for his morning’s work.
Sawe started as the favorite after going unbeaten in his first three outings over the classic distance, including winning 12 months ago at the ’25 London Marathon in 2:02:27. He truly never looked out of his comfort zone despite having debutant Yomif Kejelcha on his shoulder until just before the 25-mile mark.
In almost perfect conditions for fast times, the opening 5K was passed in 14:14, 12 seconds quicker than Kiptum in his WR run with a group of six — Sawe, Kejelcha, Uganda’s half-marathon WR-holder Jacob Kiplimo, Kenya’s Amos Kipruto, and the Ethiopian pair of Deresa Geleta and Tamirat Tola — tucked in behind the pacemakers.
This group was still together at 10K, passed in 28:35 and 7 seconds faster than Kiptum — although Eliud Kipchoge was quicker when he ran 28:23 for the opening 10K of his 2:01:09 WR at Berlin in ’22.
The pulsating pace continued as the sextet passed 15K in 43:10 before the halfway point was reached in 1:00:29, and then 25K in 1:11:41, with all six men still in contention and seemingly biding their time.
However, many pundits subscribe to the view that the marathon only really starts once 25K has passed and so it proved in London.
Sawe started to put in gentle testing surges, with Kejelcha covering every move and Kiplimo also looking comfortable at this stage.
At around 31K Sawe cranked up the pace more severely and only Kejelcha went with him.
Kiplimo initially lost about 15 meters, but valiantly tried to hang on, perhaps hoping Sawe would ratchet back the pace, as Tola, Geleta and Kipruto got detached in turn.
The brutality of Sawe’s decisive surge can be seen by the fact that the 5K between 30–35K took just 13:56, with the leading pair reaching this checkpoint in 1:39.57.
With just 7K to go, it started to look seriously like Kiptum’s WR might be under threat, but a sub-2 was still a thing of fantasy.
However, the next 5K, as Sawe tried to shake off Kejelcha — with Kiplimo disappearing from view at around 36K — changed that prediction.
40K was reached in 1:53:39, with a 13:42 split, before Sawe’s strength proved decisive over the former half-marathon WR-holder in the final mile.
Behind Sawe’s historic 1:59:30 clocking, Kejelcha crossed the line in 1:59:41, coincidently the same time as Kipchoge’s assisted sub-2 stunt in 2019.
“I think if Kejelcha was not there I would not have got the WR,” reflected Sawe later, paying tribute to his vanquished rival in the head-to-head duel for the ages.
“I was ready to run fast, and I knew a good time would come but thought it [going under sub-2] was possible from 40K when Yomif started to drop off. Yomif was strong. We helped each other [to fast times]. He was trying his best.”
In addition to Sawe’s barrier-breaking outing the depth of the ’26 London Marathon was also of historic proportions.
Never before had a race seen more than one man under 2:02 but this race saw four with best-for-place marks for the top 6 home.
In another day, it would have been Kiplimo deservedly taking the WR headlines with his time 2:00:28 but in a race of this magnitude he had to settle for 3rd place while Kipruto moved up to No. 6 performer with the =No. 7 performance on the all-time list with 2:01:39.
LONDON MEN’S RESULTS
1. Sabastian Sawe (Ken) 1:59:30 WR (old WR 2:00:35 Kelvin Kiptum [Ken] ’23) (1:00:29/59:01);
2. Yomif Kejelcha (Eth) 1:59:41 NR (2, 2 W) (debut) (1:00:29/59:12); 3. Jacob Kiplimo (Uga) 2:00:28 NR (3, 3 W) (1:00:29/59:59); 4. Amos Kipruto (Ken) 2:01:39 PR (6, =7 W);
7. Addisu Gobena (Eth) 2:05:23; 8. Geoffrey Kamworor (Ken) 2:05:38; 9. Peter Lynch (Ire) 2:06:08 NR; 10. Mahamed Mahamed (GB) 2:06:14 PR; 11. Patrick Dever (GB) 2:06:18 PR; 12. Joshua Cheptegei (Uga) 2:06:39; 13. Weynay Ghebreselassie (GB) 2:06:59 PR; 14. Jack Rowe (GB) 2:07:47 PR; 15. Amanal Petros (Ger) 2:08:31;
16. Phil Sesemann (GB) 2:08:41; 17. Tim Vincent (Aus) 2:09:41; 18. Adam Lipschitz (SA) 2:09:53; 19. Tewelde Menges (GB) 2:10:48; 20. Alfie Manthorpe (GB) 2:11:31 PR; 21. Jake Smith (GB) 2:12:19; 22. Andrew Fyfe (GB) 2:12:36 PR; 23. Liam Boudin (Aus) 2:12:55; 24. Chris Perry (GB) 2:13:41 PR; 25. Alex Milne (GB) 2:13:51.
