Sawe Records First Official Sub-2-Hour Marathon in London

Sabastian Sawe won the London Marathon with a time of 1:59:30, marking the first officially recognized sub-2-hour marathon. Sawe, 31, finished 11 seconds ahead of Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha, who recorded a time of 1:59:41 in his marathon debut.

Sawe maintained an average pace of 4:33 minutes per mile over the 26.2-mile course. He completed the second half of the race in 59:01, demonstrating a negative split. Sawe's performance surpassed Kelvin Kiptum's previous marathon record of 2:00:35 by over one minute.

The Athletics Integrity Unit conducted numerous tests on Sawe during the past year, ensuring the official recognition of his results. Eliud Kipchoge previously ran a sub-2-hour marathon in 2019, but his effort did not meet standard competition rules for official recognition.

Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo secured third place in London with a time of 2:00:28, establishing the third-fastest marathon time in history. This time exceeded Kiptum's 2023 Chicago Marathon finish by seven seconds. Kenya's Amos Kipruto finished fourth, recording 2:01:39, the seventh-fastest marathon time ever. This places his result behind Kiptum and Kipchoge's 2:01:09 and 2:01:39 from the 2022 and 2019 Berlin Marathons, respectively.