# London Marathon produces first official sub-two-hour men’s times and another women’s record

*By IO Digest Desk*

The marathon crossed one of sport’s most stubborn barriers on event date 2026-04-26, when Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe won the London Marathon in 1:59:30, becoming the first runner to break two hours for the full distance in record-eligible competition. AP’s account says Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha followed in 1:59:41 on his marathon debut, meaning the race did not just produce a single breakthrough but two official sub-two-hour performances on the same day [Source 12009].

Sawe’s run reset the men’s world record by 65 seconds, an enormous margin at a level where improvements are usually incremental. AP also reported that Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo finished third in 2:00:28, which was itself seven seconds faster than the previous world record held by Kelvin Kiptum. That meant every man on the podium finished under the old global best, turning London into a record collapse rather than a routine championship result [Source 12009].

The extract describes how the race unfolded. Sawe and Kejelcha broke clear after 30 kilometres, then Sawe made a decisive move in the final two kilometres and sprinted home on The Mall. He ran a faster second half in 59:01, a split that underlined how strongly he closed after already moving at unprecedented pace. AP also notes that London’s relatively flat course and mild weather helped create ideal conditions, but those advantages do not diminish the scale of a record that had resisted generations of elite runners [Source 12009].

The importance of the mark lies partly in the distinction from Eliud Kipchoge’s 2019 1:59:40. Kipchoge did run under two hours, but AP notes that it came in a specially tailored challenge with rotating pacemakers and conditions designed for speed, so it did not count for the record books. Sawe’s 1:59:30 did. In one official marathon, he went 10 seconds faster than Kipchoge’s exhibition time and moved the sub-two-hour barrier from possibility to competition reality [Source 12009].

The women’s race delivered another record. Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa won in 2:15:41, defending her title and setting the fastest ever time in a women-only marathon, according to AP. Kenya’s Hellen Obiri was 12 seconds behind in a personal best, Joyciline Jepkosgei was two seconds further back, and AP said it was the first time three women had all finished under 2 hours 16 minutes in a marathon. The depth of that result made the day historic beyond Sawe’s headline run [Source 12009].

Taken together, the London performances rewrote expectations about how quickly the marathon can be run in standard competition. Sawe broke a barrier once treated as nearly untouchable, Kejelcha confirmed it was not a one-off illusion, and Assefa added another elite benchmark in the women’s race. On the evidence supplied, few marathon days have compressed so much change into one event: a world record by a huge margin, the first official sub-two times, and a women-only record all in the same London afternoon [Source 12009].