History was made at the 2026 London Marathon as both Sebastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha crossed the finish line in under two hours.
Sawe’s time of 01:59:30 is the fastest official marathon in history, beating Eluid Kipchoge’s previous unofficial time set in 2019.
The Kenyan, shod in Adidas Pro Evo 3 supershoes, was at risk of missing this race altogether after suffering a stress fracture in his foot back in December, which saw him miss ten days of training.
He rallied to make the start-line, though, and became the first man to set a marathon world record on the streets of London since 2002.
This was just the fourth marathon of his career - and he has won all four, including at this race last year. He is primarily trained by his uncle, Ugandan Olympic middle-distance runner Abraham Chepkirwok.
The 30-year-old Sawe was closely followed over the line by Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, 28, who also cracked two hours but will be forever be remembered as second-best on a day when records tumbled on the streets of the capital.
Mahamed Mahamed was the fastest Briton on the day, finishing tenth with a time of 02:06:14, just over a minute off Mo Farah’s long-standing British record.
On the women’s side of things, Tigst Assefa retained her London Marathon title with a women’s-only record time of 02:15:41.
She finished 12 seconds clear of Hellen Obiri and 14 ahead of Joyciline Jepkosgei. The trio matched one another pace for pace throughout, but a remarkable late surge from Assefa saw the reigning champion sail over the line in first-place.
Scotland’s Eilish McColgan was the top-performing Briton in the women’s bracket, finishing nearly ten minutes adrift of the leading pack as she narrowly missed out on a personal best. Rose Harvey was a further two minutes behind her, finishing ninth.
