LONDON — Tens of thousands of runners ran more than 26 miles through the streets in London. Many finished, but two did something that had never happened officially. They ran the 26.2-mile marathon in under 2 hours.
Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe won the race in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds. Second place was only 11 seconds slower, as Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, in his first marathon, finished in 1:59.41, The Associated Press reported.
Third place’s Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda came in less than a minute more than two hours at 2:00.28.
The previous record was held by Kelvin Kiptum, whom all three men beat, and who finished the Chicago marathon with 2:00:35. He was the fastest runner for three years.
While Sawe is now the record holder and back-to-back winner of the London Marathon, he said it wasn’t just about him.
“What comes today is not for me alone,” Sawe said, according to the AP, “but for all of us today in London.”
The two-hour benchmark has been broken before, but not in an official marathon.
Eliud Kipchoge ran sub-two hours in Vienna in 2019, but that was during a specialty race meant to break the record, called the “1.59 Challenge,” and was done on a 6-mile circuit and used rotating pacemakers, the AP reported.
The men’s race wasn’t the only one to have a record shattered.
The woman’s race had Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa winning with 2:15:41, and is the fastest time for a women’s-only marathon. It was second only to Paula Radcliffe, who holds the fastest women’s title with 2:15:25, but she competed in a mixed race event, the AP reported.
© 2026 Cox Media Group
