A delighted Sawe said he went into the race, run in warm spring weather, believing he could break the two-hour mark.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve made history today in London, and for the new generation [it shows] to run a record is possible,\u201d said the 31-year-old, whose winning time was scribbled on his shoe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt depends on the preparation you had and the discipline you had, so for me I think I have shown them that nothing is impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is possible with a matter of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenya\u2019s Eliud Kipchoge ran 1h 59m 40s in October 2019, becoming the first person in recorded history to complete a sub-two-hour marathon.<\/p>\n
But the time was not ratified as a world record because he ran with specialised shoes, standard competition rules for pacing and fluids were not followed, and it was not an open event.<\/p>\n
Sawe, wearing adidas\u2019 new Pro Evo 3 supershoe, which weighs less than 100g, suggested in the lead-up to Sunday\u2019s race that a course record or even a world record was in his sights.<\/p>\n
He led a group of six, which also included Olympic champion Tamirat Tola and half-marathon world-record holder Kiplimo as they passed the halfway point in a time of 1h 29s.<\/p>\n
The leading sextet later began to string out and Sawe and Kejelcha pulled clear, staying in lockstep until the final stages.<\/p>\n
Sawe made his move with about 1.6km remaining, finally breaking clear of Kejelcha, who was also wearing the new adidas shoes, and pressing on alone, taking 65 seconds off the previous world record.<\/p>\n
Kipchoge praised his compatriot, posting on social media that it was a \u201chistorical day for marathon running\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing two athletes break the magical two-hour barrier at the London Marathon is the proof that we are just at the beginning of what is possible when talent, progress and an unwavering belief in the human potential come together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Kenya\u2019s President William Ruto said Sawe had \u201credrawn the limits of human endurance\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is more than a win,\u201d he tweeted. \u201cIt is a defining moment. Your triumph places you firmly among the greats of global athletics and reaffirms Kenya as an enduring force at the pinnacle of distance running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assefa outpaces Obiri<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s race, reigning Olympic and world silver medallist Assefa was locked in a three-way tussle with Kenyan pair Hellen Obiri and Joyciline Jepkosgei, but surged away in the closing stages to cross the line in a time of 2h 15m 41s.<\/p>\n
Tigst Assefa of Team Ethiopia celebrates with her adidas shoe after winning the Women\u2019s 2026 TCS London Marathon with a new world record time. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
That time beat the Ethiopian\u2019s previous best, set on the same course last year, by nine seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so happy to win again,\u201d said the 29-year-old, who also wore the new footwear. \u201cTo repeat my victory from last year means even more. The happiness I feel is just swelling up inside me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of my plans coming into this competition to break my own world record from last year\u2019s race. So to do that has brought me a lot of satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obiri, a two-time former world 5000m champion who won marathon bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics, came in second in a personal best of 2h 15m 53s.<\/p>\n
She finished two-hundredths of a second ahead of compatriot Jepkosgei.<\/p>\n
The world record set in a mixed race where female athletes benefit from male pacemakers was by Kenya\u2019s now-banned Ruth Chepngetich, who clocked 2h 09m 56s at the Chicago Marathon in October 2024.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A delighted Sawe said he went into the race, run in warm spring weather, believing he could break…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2851,206246,49638,16717,1888,1861,78,1619,1362,5338,33031,111,139,69,1974,206242,206243,50643,213,5412,206244,206245,6123,102,206247,377],"class_list":["post-399454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-also","tag-assefa","tag-athlete","tag-becoming","tag-first","tag-history","tag-in","tag-london","tag-made","tag-makes","tag-marathon","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-record","tag-sabastian","tag-sawe","tag-smashed","tag-sports","tag-streets","tag-subtwohour","tag-tigst","tag-while","tag-with","tag-womensonly","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}