The Mall was bathed in spring sunshine on Sunday morning when Sabastian Sawe sprinted past Buckingham Palace and into history. The clock above the finish line at the 2026 TCS London Marathon read 1:59:30. For the first time in the sport's existence, a runner had crossed the line of an official marathon race in under two hours. The barrier that had stood as marathon running's most famous threshold was finally gone.
Sawe's time broke the previous world record of 2:00:35 by 65 seconds. That mark had belonged to Kelvin Kiptum, a Kenyan runner who died in a car crash in February 2024 at the age of 24.
Eleven seconds behind Sawe, Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha also dipped under two hours, finishing in 1:59:41. It was Kejelcha's first marathon.
Sawe ran a race of patient calculation. He passed halfway in 1:00:29, then accelerated through east London. His second half took just 59:01. He made his decisive break in the final two kilometres, and the record was his.
Sawe arrived in London undefeated. His victory was his fourth consecutive marathon win. He trains in Nandi County, a highland region of Kenya's Rift Valley, under coach Claudio Berardelli.
The women's race delivered its own milestone. Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia successfully defended her London title in 2:15:41, setting a new women-only world record.
On Sunday, a quiet 31-year-old from the Rift Valley simply ran through the barrier that generations of runners had circled.