Something happened on the streets of London this Sunday morning that people said would never be possible. Sabastian Sawe, a quiet and determined Kenyan runner, crossed the finish line at the London Marathon in a time of 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds. Just let that sink in. A human being ran 26.2 miles in under two hours. It is the kind of moment that makes you stop whatever you are doing and just stare at the screen.
For years, the two-hour marathon barrier felt like the moon landing of athletics. People talked about it, dreamed about it, and a few came painfully close. Eliud Kipchoge, one of the greatest runners who ever lived, ran 1:59:40 back in 2019, but that was under special conditions with rotating pacers and was never recognised as an official world record. The real barrier, the one that counts in a proper race, had never been broken. Until today.
Sawe did not just sneak under the line either. He ran with a kind of controlled power that left the entire field behind. He and a group of five others went through the halfway mark together in just over an hour, and then Sawe simply pulled away. He covered the final stretch at a pace that most people cannot sustain for even a single mile. The result was a new official world record, smashing the previous mark of 2:00:35 set by the late Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon.
What makes this even more remarkable is the company Sawe left behind him. The runner who finished second, Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha, clocked 1:59:41 in his very first marathon. That time alone would have been the greatest marathon debut in history on any other day. Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo came third in 2:00:28, which also broke Kiptum's old world record. Three men went under the previous world record in the same race. The sport of marathon running has just entered a completely new era.
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