LONDON - Sunday 26 April 2026 will go down in sporting history in golden letters. Kenyan athlete Sabastian Sawe ran a time of 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds at the London Marathon, becoming the first man to cover the marathon distance in under two hours in a regular race.

In doing so, Sawe bettered the existing world record of his late compatriot Kelvin Kiptum - who ran 2:00:35 at the Chicago Marathon in October 2023. In preparation for the London race, Sawe underwent an unprecedented 25 out-of-competition doping tests to dispel any doubts about the purity of his performance. Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha, who was fully respected by his rivals, praised the approach after the race and did not rule out doing the same in the future.

The course of the race was exceptional from the beginning. Sawe and five other athletes ran the first half marathon in 1:00:29, a world record pace. Sawe then accelerated to an average pace of 4 minutes and 17 seconds per mile in the final stretch from mile 40. He set up a solo breakaway in the last two kilometres, crossing the finish line on The Mall in front of Buckingham Palace.

Kejelcha held Sawe's pace for most of the course, but lost contact at the end and finished second in 1:59:41 - also under two hours, in his first ever marathon race. Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo took the bronze in 2:00:28. All three finalists broke the original world record - something never before seen in the history of marathon running.

The historical context is important. Eliud Kipchoge did run a sub-two-hour marathon in 2019 in Vienna as part of a specially prepared „1.59 Challenge“ under controlled conditions with rotating pacemakers - but his time of 1:59:40 did not enter the record books because it was not a regular race. Sawe did it in a full competition, with no advantages and in front of the whole world. Legendary London winner Paula Radcliffe, who was commentating on the race for the BBC, responded by saying: „The bar in marathon running has literally just been moved.“ Sawe said after the race: „For a new generation, I have shown that breaking a record is possible. Anything is possible, it just takes time.“

In the women's category, Ethiopian Tigst Assefa wrote her own chapter. She defended her London title and broke her own women's world record with a time of 2:15:41, nine seconds better than last year over the same distance. She was followed by Kenya's Hellen Obiri (2:15:53) and Joyciline Jepkosgei (2:15:55).

gnews.cz - GH