London, April 27 -- Kenya's Sabastian Sawe became the first man in history to run a marathon in under two hours, doing so at the 2026 London Marathon in a winning time of one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds.
Second-placed Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia also run the race in under two hours, finishing in 1:59:41.
The original world record had been set by the late Kelvin Kiptum with 2:00:35 at the 2023 Chicago Marathon, while Sawe's compatriot Eliud Kipchoge had run the 42km marathon distance in under two hours at an exhibition performance in Vienna in 2019, which was not recognized by World Athletics.
On Sunday, Sawe led the halfway in a six-man group with 1:00:29. The decisive phase came between 30km and 35km, as a 13:54 5km split saw Sawe an...