Eliud Kipchoge watched Sabastian Sawe do what he once did alone and this time, it counted.
Sunday at the London Marathon produced one of the most remarkable days in the history of distance running. Sawe became the first man to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a record-eligible race, crossing the line in 1:59:30. In the women’s race, Ethiopian Tigst Assefa defended her title and broke her own world record for a women-only field, finishing in 2:15:41. Kenya’s Hellen Obiri marked her London debut with a personal best of 2:15:53 in second place, and Joyciline Jepkosgei finished third in 2:15:55 — the first time three women have broken 2:16 in the same race.
It was, by any measure, a day the sport will not forget.
Sawe Rewrites the Record Books
Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha finished the men’s race in 1:59:41, making it the first time two men broke the two-hour barrier in the same race. Kejelcha also set an Ethiopian national record and became the fastest marathon debutant in history.
Kipchoge was first to run the distance under two hours, doing so in 1:59:40 at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna in October 2019. That run, staged under controlled conditions with pacemakers and a laser-guided light, did not qualify for official world record status. Sunday’s race did.
Sawe’s 1:59:30 cuts more than one minute from the late Kelvin Kiptum’s world record of 2:00:35, set at the Chicago Marathon in October 2023. Kiptum died in a road accident in February 2024 at the age of 24, leaving the record he set as his final mark on the sport.
Kipchoge himself held the world record twice, running 2:01:39 in Berlin in 2018 and then lowering it to 2:01:09, also in Berlin, in 2022. Kiptum broke that mark the following year.
Kipchoge: “We Are Just at the Beginning”
Posting on Instagram, the four-time London Marathon champion described Sunday as proof that the sport stands at the start of something larger.
“Today is a historical day for marathon running. Seeing two athletes break the magical two-hour barrier at the London Marathon is proof that we are just at the beginning of what is possible when talent, progress, and an unwavering belief in human potential come together. My deepest congratulations to both Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha,” Kipchoge wrote.
He connected Sunday’s achievement to the INEOS experiment that started the conversation six years ago. “During the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, we showed the world that it was possible, and it has always been my hope to see another athlete continue with this belief and break this magical barrier in a city marathon.”
His closing line carried the phrase he has built his legacy on:
“Let this achievement inspire the next generation and remind everyone in the world that No Human is Limited.”
Assefa Defends, Obiri Shines on London Debut
The women’s race was its own spectacle. A lead group of four — Assefa, Obiri, Jepkosgei, and Kenya’s Catherine Reline Amanang’ole — set the pace from the front, passing 5km in 15:39 and 10km in 31:03, already clear of the rest of the field. Amanang’ole dropped back before the 15km mark, leaving the leading trio to run together through halfway in 1:06:12, half a minute faster than Assefa’s record-breaking run the previous year.
The three stayed together deep into the second half. A sub-2:15 finish slipped beyond reach as their pace eased, but all three remained on course to improve Assefa’s women-only world record. In the closing stages, Assefa pulled clear to win in 2:15:41, taking nine seconds off her own global mark.
Obiri, making her London debut, held on for second in a personal best of 2:15:53. Jepkosgei, the 2021 London Marathon champion, finished two seconds behind in 2:15:55. The podium represented the deepest women’s finish in marathon history at that level — three athletes inside 2:16 in the same race.
Sunday in London, Sawe and Assefa did not just break barriers. They moved the frontier of what distance running considers possible, and they did it on the record books, in a city race, in front of the world.
Kipchoge, who started this chapter alone in Vienna, watched it become a shared achievement. The mantra holds.
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