Sabastian Sawe breaks Kelvin Kiptum’s earlier world document of two:00:35; Ethiopia’s Assefa retains her ladies’s crown.
Printed On 26 Apr 2026
Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe has develop into the primary man to run a marathon in beneath two hours, successful the London Marathon in 1:59:30.
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa defended her London Marathon crown on Sunday, breaking her personal world document.
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Nevertheless, it was Sawe who stole the limelight in an enormous second in sporting historical past as he broke the two-hour barrier, shattering the world document beforehand held by his late compatriot Kelvin Kiptum, who set a time of two:00:35 on the Chicago Marathon in October 2023.
The 31-year-old, who has by no means misplaced a marathon, smashed the world document by 65 seconds.
Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia stayed on Sawe’s heels for many of the 42.195km course earlier than fading down the ultimate stretch to take second in his marathon debut with 1:59:41, whereas Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda gained bronze in 2:02:28.
All three completed beneath Kiptum’s earlier document time.
“We began the race nicely, and on the finish of the race, I used to be feeling robust,” stated Sawe.
“Lastly, reaching the ending line, I noticed the time, and I used to be so excited to see I had run a world document at present.
“I used to be very ready as a result of coming to London for the second time was so vital to me, and that’s why I ready nicely for it.”
Kiptum died in a automobile crash in Kenya in 2024, aged 24 years.
Within the ladies’s race, Assefa retained her successful place.
The reigning Olympic and world silver medallist was locked in a three-way tussle with Kenyan pair Hellen Obiri and Joyciline Jepkosgei however pulled away within the closing phases to cross the road in 2:15:41.
That point beat her earlier greatest, set on the identical course final 12 months, by 9 seconds.
Obiri, a two-time former world 5,000m champion who gained marathon bronze on the 2024 Paris Olympics, got here in second in a private greatest of two:15:53.
She completed simply two-hundredths of a second forward of compatriot Jepkosgei.
The world document set in a combined race, the place feminine athletes profit from male pacemakers, was by Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich, who clocked 2:09:56 on the Chicago Marathon in October 2024.
Chepngetich was given a three-year doping ban final October, though achievements and data pre-dating the March 2025 pattern stand.
Switzerland’s Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner gained the boys’s and girls’s wheelchair occasions. Hug gained for the sixth consecutive 12 months and eighth general, whereas Debrunner outsprinted American Tatyana McFadden to the end for her third win in a row in London.
