In London, Sabastian Sawe on Sunday became the first athlete to run a marathon in less than two hours. The Kenyan retained his title ahead of Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha and Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo.
Published on: 04/26/2026 - 12:40 Modified on: 04/27/2026 - 07:41
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Less than two hours. Sabastian Sawe entered the history of the London Marathon and that of running on Sunday April 26. The 29-year-old Kenyan crossed the finish line in front of Buckingham Palace after 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, and shattered the old world record set by Kelvin Kiptum in 2 hours, 1 minute and 25 seconds in April 2023, less than a year before his death in a car accident.
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The Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha (1h59:41) also completed the 42.195 kilometers of the race in less than two hours, a performance all the more incredible as the half-marathon specialist was competing in the premier distance for the first time. Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo (2h00:28), second last year for his first marathon, also achieved a better time than that established by Kiptum three years ago.
Before Sabastian Sawe, the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge had already run a marathon in less than two hours, in 2019 in Vienna (1h59:40), but it was during an exhibition without any rival where he had been helped by 41 "hares", which prohibited the approval of a record.
“We have waited long enough to see a human go under two hours,” reacted Mo Farah, British athletics legend, on Radio London. “I looked at it and I was like, did that really happen?”
Already winner in 2025, Sawe swallowed the 42.195 kilometers of London asphalt in a "negative split", that is to say by completing the second half of the race faster than the first, first within a small group of six, from which he escaped with the Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo and the Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, whom he then successively left behind.
“I feel good, I’m so happy. It’s a memorable day for me,” reacted the winner. “We started the race well and I felt really good as we approached the end. As I crossed the line, I saw my time and I was overjoyed,” added the man who ran his second semi on Sunday in a stratospheric time of 59 minutes and one second.
The athlete was quickly congratulated on X by Kenyan President William Ruto. “Your triumph,” he wrote, “places you among the greatest athletes in the world and confirms Kenya’s place among the leading nations in long-distance running.”
A record for women
“The standards of the marathon have literally just been completely turned upside down, just like what defines a world-class athlete,” British Paula Radcliffe, holder of the women's world record from 2003 to 2019, told the BBC.
The Ethiopian Tigst Assefa also wrote a piece of history on Sunday by retaining her title in London with a new world record in a single-sex race, exclusively for women (others went faster, but running among the men).
The 29-year-old athlete sprinted in the last meters to beat Kenyans Joyciline Jepkosgei and Hellen Obiri, with whom she did the entire race, and crossed the line after 2 hours, 15 minutes and 41 seconds of effort.
This is nine seconds less than the previous world record, which she herself established last year on this same route, between the Greenwich district and The Mall, its terminus.
“I’m so happy to win again,” Assefa said. “Repeating my victory from last year means even more.”
With AFP and Reuters
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