Mumbai: For long considered the holy grail of not just athletics but sport overall, the once-inconceivable landmark in marathon running has been conquered.
Not by one man, but two.
In one of the most remarkable days in marathon history, Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe finally shattered the much-yearned two-hour barrier in an official race on Sunday.
Backed by newly launched cutting edge super-shoes and almost ideal running conditions, Sawe won the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds (01:59:30). Just 11 seconds behind him was Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, a half marathon world record holder who astonishingly went under the revered mark in his first full marathon.
For context on just how fast this race was, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo finished third at 2:00:28, which would have broken the previous world record set by the late Kelvin Kiptum (2:00:35) in 2023.
Sawe, as it turns out, not only broke the official world record by 65 seconds, but even the unofficial one of 1:59:40 set by Kenyan great Eliud Kipchoge in his famous attempt to clock sub-two in a curated race in 2019. “To break the world record is something I have dreamed about for a long time, and to achieve it means so much to me and to the sport of running,” said Sawe.
Latest super-shoes
Sawe, 31, was running in only his fourth marathon, and is yet to come second in any. He also won in London last year clocking 2:02:27.
What he had this time, and as did Kejelcha and Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa who also broke her own women’s-only world record with a timing of 02:15:41, was a shoe that was launched on Thursday.
The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 was unveiled by Adidas as the “lightest and fastest racing shoe” it has ever designed. Weighing an average 97grams in a standard shoe size, the shoe, as per the company, was 30% lighter, had 11% greater forefoot energy return and improved the running economy by 1.6% compared to its previous design.
“It was a long process, but it’s led to something we believe genuinely changes what a race-day shoe can feel like,” Patrick Nava, GM Running at Adidas, was quoted as saying in a release on Thursday.
The shoe, costing $500, was launched to debut in London on their fastest athletes, including Sawe, Kejelcha and Assefa, along with the latest running suit which was tested to improve running economy by up to 1%.
Pushing barriers
Over the years, the quest to aid long-distance athletes with cutting edge research, technology and equipment has significantly ramped up. Experiments have failed and succeeded in recent times, while athletes have constantly aimed for and flirted with the glass ceiling.
Kipchoge became the most discussed face of it. The Kenyan was picked by Nike for the ‘Breaking2’ attempt in Monza, Italy, in 2017. The private race had scientists study the athletes and conditions in the lead-up, featured the company’s latest shoe and had a shield of pacesetters assisting the protagonist.
Although he broke the world record, Kipchoge fell short of the goal. Two years later, he took another shot at a curated race and cracked it on the streets of Ineos, Vienna. Neither of those timings are considered official by World Athletics.
In June last year, Faith Kipyegon set off on an audacious bid to become the first woman to run a mile in under four minutes under similarly supervised race conditions and equipment. Like Kipchoge in his first attempt, the three-time Olympic 1500m champion lowered her own mile world record but couldn’t go below the mark in Paris.
And yet, she had no doubt that the sub-4 challenge will be breached by a woman at some point in future.
“It was a message sent out that it is possible — one day, one time,” Kipyegon told world media last year. “If it doesn’t happen to me, it will happen to someone.”
Like it did to Sawe in the marathon.
Ahead of the London race, Sawe told BBC Sport “I hope and wish one day” that it would be him to be the first to go under two hours.
The Kenyan began his international career running 1500m and 5000m before transitioning into cross country and half marathons. In his marathon debut, in Valencia in 2024, he clocked 2:02:05 to win. He also won the two marathons he competed in last year, in London and Berlin (2:02:16).
Sawe touched down in London confident of defending his crown, and also going below the world mark. On a largely flat course with comfortable temperatures and winds in London on Sunday, he covered the first half in 60:29 and the second in an incredible 59:01, to achieve something even more historic.
