Kenyan runner Sabastian Sawe has become the first man to break the two-hour marathon barrier in a competitive race, winning the London Marathon on Sunday in a world record time of 1:59:30.
The achievement ends one of athletics’ last great frontiers. Sawe’s time obliterates the previous world record of 2:00:35, set by the late Kelvin Kiptum at the Chicago Marathon.
Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia pushed Sawe hard for much of the race before fading in the final stretch to finish second. Remarkably, Kejelcha also came in under two hours, clocking 1:59:41, making London on 27 April 2026 the day two men broke the barrier for the first time.
Speaking to the BBC after the race, Sawe reflected on his run with quiet satisfaction. “We start the race well and approaching the end of finishing the race I was feeling strong. I am so happy,” he said.
Running a marathon in under two hours had long been considered one of sport’s defining impossibilities, often likened to Roger Bannister’s breaking of the four-minute mile in 1954.
Eliud Kipchoge, also of Kenya, became the first man recorded to run the distance in under two hours in 2019. However, that effort was staged under controlled conditions and was never ratified as an official world record.
Sawe’s run on Sunday carries no such asterisk.
Sunday’s London Marathon produced a second world record. Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa crossed the line in 2:15:41 in the women’s race, breaking her own world record set at the same event the previous year.
