Sawe becomes the first man to break two hours in a historic London Marathon
The Kenyan athlete has broken a barrier that seemed insurmountable in a race where the women's record has also fallen
BarcelonaAthletics has seen one of the barriers that seemed impossible to overcome fall. For the first time, an athlete has run a marathon in under two hours under normal race conditions, as Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge had previously done so in 2019 in Vienna in an experiment programmed by the INEOS brand on a closed circuit. Kipchoge had had coaches, support staff, pacemakers, and all sorts of facilities to prove that breaking two hours was feasible. Today, one of his compatriots has proven him right.
The hero has been Sabastian Sawe, 29, who won the London Marathon with a time of 1 hour, 59 minutes, and 30 seconds. Sawe is a good marathon runner and was a favorite, but no one was prepared for a race like this, as it was so surprisingly fast that the second-place finisher also broke the two-hour mark. What hadn't happened in decades happened twice in a few seconds. Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, who was also making his Marathon debut as he had previously run shorter distances, clocked a time of 1h59:41, keeping pace with Sawe until the final meters. Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, in third place, finished with a time of 2h00:28, also surpassing what was until then the world record, held by Kelvin Kiptum, who had run a time of 2h 00:35 in Chicago in 2023.
Sabastian Sawe, 31, had previously achieved marathon victories, such as the one in Valencia in 2024. Or the triumph in 2025 in London and Berlin, an achievement that allowed him to be chosen male athlete of the year in 2025. But he had never before gone under two hours and two minutes, which is why his record has surprised everyone, as he entered the Buckingham Palace area, surrounded by British flags, with a pace that now makes him an immortal name in athletics.
The women's world record also falls
In the women's race, the world record has also fallen. Tigst Assefa, from Ethiopia, won after breaking her own world record with a time of 2 hours, 15 minutes, and 41 seconds. The Ethiopian athlete already held, with 2:15.50 since April 27, 2025, the best universal mark in a marathon, a success also achieved in London. On this occasion, she surpassed the Kenyans Hellen Obiri (2h15:53) and Joyciline Jepkosgei (2h15:55) at the finish line.
