The London Marathon has easily stamped its place as the world’s greatest road race, as its unofficial title has been polished this morning. The British capital has hosted the greatest marathon ever, where three athletes have broken the world record, and two of them, Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha, have run under 2 hours.
The defending London Marathon champion Sawe, 30, clocked 1:59:30 at the finish and lowered Kelvin Kiptum’s previous mark by a marginal gap, 65 seconds. Sawe ran 60:29 in the first half, then moved to leadership and produced crazy splits at the end. Kenyan runner posted two sub-14-minute 5Ks after 30 kilometres, 13:54 and 13:42, then closed the race with a stunning 5:51 over the final 2.195 metres. He became the first official athlete to run sub two hours in athletics history and broke the world record by more than a minute. His average pace was 2:50 per minute, peaking at 2:40 at various points during the race.
Previously, only two-time Olympic champ Eliud Kipchoge had managed to clock a sub-two-hour marathon in Vienna, with 1:59:40, under special conditions, assisted by a pace car and very strong changing pace groups.
Ethiopian world and Olympic medallist Yomif Kejelcha was brilliant too in the London streets. He made a historic marathon debut and penned his name in athletics history. Kejelcha stuck with Sawe until 40 kilometres and finished the race under two hours. He also broke the “debut marathon world record” over Kelvin Kiptum, who clocked 2:01:53 on his debut in Valencia 2022.
On top of that, world half marathon record holder Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda has run better than the previous world record. He clocked 2:00:28 to establish a new Ugandan record.
ASSEFA BROKE HER OWN RECORD
In the women’s race, Ethiopian star Tigst Assefa broke another women-only world record in her second successive year. Assefa battled Kenyan rivals Hellen Obiri and Joyciline Jepkosgei, a former London winner, and proved her superiority on fast courses. She broke up from the Kenyan duo just before the final kilometer and finished the race at 2:15:41 - nine seconds inside of her own world record.
Assefa, who also owns a 2:11:53 PB in the mixed race, claimed her fourth World Marathon Major victory, while Hellen Obiri clocked her fastest at 2:15:53 to take second place. Joyciline Jepkosgei came to the finish line as “close” third in 2:15:55 and earned her fifth London Marathon top-three result.
