Sabastian Kimaru Sawe Makes History Running London Marathon in Under 2hr

The sub 2 hour marathon barrier has been broken in London

Sabastian Sawe: 1:59:30
Yomif Kejelcha: 1:59:41

4:34/mile for 26.2 miles… insanepic.twitter.com/f3LqVSLa2Y

— Marcus Milione (@MarcusMilione) April 26, 2026

Kenyan long distance runner Sabastian Kimaru Sawe (born 16 March 1995) has become the first person to ever complete an official competitive city marathon in under 2hr. Sawe beat Kelvin Kiptum’s (RIP) previous world record time by over a minute.

Sawe became the first runner to ever break the two-hour mark in a marathon race, finishing the 26.2 miles in 1:59:30
(caveat – there have been other sub-2hr runs in unofficial marathons to see if it was possible. they are not counted as official records)

Prior record holder Kelvin Kiptum (also from Kenya) held the record from 2023 – 2026.

Sawe and 2 others beat Kiptum’s time with 1 of the other 2 coming in at under 2hr.

Sabastian Sawe (Kenya) 1:59:30
Yomif Kejelcha (Ethiopia) 1:59:41
Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda) 2:00:28

(Not to be outdone or outshone, Tigst Assefa (Ethiopia) delivered a women’s-only world record in 2:15:41!)

via GIPHY

It took me 11:45 to run 1mi for the Presidential Fitness Test in 1996. I am awestruck by these athletes

source
(i did a bunch of reading bc idk shit about running and wanted to share the prowess of these individuals)