Sabastian Sawe runs the first sub-two-hour marathon in a real race
At the 2026 London Marathon, Kenya Sabastian Sawe became the first athlete to run under two hours in a record-eligible race, finishing in 1:59:30, with Ethiopia Yomif Kejelcha also breaking the barrier in second.
SportsGNGV Editorial Team4 min read
On 26 April 2026, one of the most enduring barriers in distance running finally fell in competition. At the London Marathon, Kenya Sabastian Sawe crossed the line in one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, becoming the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours in a record-eligible race. For years the sub-two-hour mark had been spoken of in the same breath as the four-minute mile, a frontier that seemed almost mythical.
The achievement broke the official world record of 2:00:35 set by the late Kelvin Kiptum at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, taking more than a minute off the previous best. The performance was made even more remarkable by the man in second place: Ethiopia Yomif Kejelcha, running only his second marathon, also dipped under two hours with 1:59:41, meaning two athletes broke the barrier on the same morning.
Eliud Kipchoge had famously run a marathon distance in under two hours in 2019, but that effort took place under controlled conditions with rotating pacemakers and was not eligible for record purposes. Sawe achievement, by contrast, came in a standard elite race, making it the first time the barrier has been broken in legitimate competition.
Asked about the moment afterwards, Sawe kept his feet on the ground, calling it a day to remember and pointing ahead rather than back. At 31, his coach suggested he may not yet have reached his peak. Beyond the numbers, the run offered a reminder that limits long thought immovable can still be redrawn, and that human ambition, patiently pursued, keeps finding new horizons.
