SAWE, KEJELCHA breaks two-hour barrier at TCS LONDON MARATHON.

SAWE, KEJELCHA breaks two-hour barrier at TCS LONDON MARATHON.
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.

(26-Apr) — Almost 72 years after Roger Bannister became the first man to break the four-minute kilometer at Oxford’s Iffley Road Track, Kenya’s Sebastian Sawh and Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha became the first men to run under two hours for a standard marathon run under World Athletics* rules. Save, 31, and Kejelca, 28, finished first and second in this morning’s TCS London Marathon, clocking 1:59:30 and 1:59:41 respectively. They shattered the late Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 world record of 2:00:35 set at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, and Kejelcha ran (so far) the fastest debut marathon in history. Third-placed Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda also finished in a Kiptum record of 2:00:28.

Moreover, Soye successfully defended his title.

“I’m so happy, it’s a day to remember for me,” Soi told the race’s media team. “We started the race well and as I got closer to the end of the race I felt strong. When I got to the finish line I saw the time and I was so excited to set a world record today.”

Notably, the fastest run of the race came in the second half. The first three 5km sections were completed in 14:14, 14:21 and 14:35 respectively. That’s certainly running fast, but it was “only” predicted a 2:01:26 finish, about a minute off Kiptum’s record. Save, Kejelcha, Kiplimo, Kenya’s Amos Kipruto and Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta and Tamirat Tola were all among the leaders.

“They obviously had their Weetabix this morning,” British Olympian Chris Thomson said during the race’s international broadcast.

The first injection of pace came in the next 5km stretch. Led by Ugandan Oscar Chelimo, the top 6 ran 14:11 over the 15 to 20 kilometer mark, then crossed the halfway point in 1:00:29. No one dropped the pace and the same six men remained in contention. Undoubtedly, the sunny, cool conditions helped all the athletes.

About halfway between the 25 and 30 kilometers, Chelimo retired, leaving the contenders to fight for the win. The lead group had a fracture just before 30-K (1:26:03). Save and Kejelcha led Kiplimo by two seconds, with Kipruto, Geleta and Tola drifting back. That section wasn’t particularly fast (14:22), but the next two were incredible. Sawe and Kejelcha covered 5 kilometers from 30 to 35-K in 13:54, then from 35 to 40-K in 13:42 (27:36 from 30 to 40-K). That put the leading pair on pace for under two hours, but who would win?

At the Paris Marathon earlier this month, Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa ran 6:01 from 40-K to the finish line, the fastest final marathon segment ever.

Until today.

Sawe ran 5:51 to Kejelcha’s 6:02 and that was the difference. The run did not lead to a sprint. Instead, Soi pulled away gently in the final kilometer to take a glorious victory at The Mall, some 90 kilometers south-east of where Bannister made history in 1954. He ran the second half in 59:01 minutes.

“I think I prepared well because coming to London for the second time was very important for me, so I prepared well for it,” explained Soi.

Under a cash and bonus system put in place by race organizers, Soi earned US$355,000, including US$150,000 for setting a new world record. Kejelcha earned $180,000 and Kiplimo $172,500. All three men will earn far more than “top of the table” money, as the race has paid them appearance fees (and possibly private seat bonuses) and their kit sponsors (adidas for Sawe and Kejelcha and Nike for Kiplimo) typically pay bonuses for such exceptional performances.

In the final order, Kipruto ran 2:01:39 for fourth place, Tola 2:02:59 for fifth and Geleta 2:03:23 for sixth. Ireland’s Peter Lynch clocked a national record of 2:06:08 to finish ninth, while the top British finisher and Great Britain Athletics national title winner Mohamed Mohamed was tenth in 2:06:14.

The women’s race also set a world record (for a women’s race only) and saw Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa successfully defend her title. Asefa, 29, the 2024 Olympic marathon silver medalist, ran a brilliantly tactical race against rivals Helen Obiri and Joycelyn Jepkosgei, both of Kenya. Behind great pace from Ethiopia’s Tsige Gebreselama and Kenya’s Miriam Chebet, the trio reached the halfway point in 1:06:12, well short of the world record and also on schedule to beat Paula Radcliffe’s course record of 2:15:25 set in 2003 in the mixed gender format.

Unlike the men’s race, the women slowed down in the second half. The first four 5-kilometer sections were fast in 15:39, 15:24, 15:56 and 15:42 respectively, but after that they didn’t run again until 16:00. Instead, they took turns going forward and exchanging small waves, testing each other. None of those moves were hard enough to break up the race.

Up to the 40-K mark, the three women recorded identical separation times. Something had to give and Assefa steadily increased his speed in the final kilometer to pull away from his rivals. By the time he made the final right turn onto The Mall, both Obiri and Jepkosgei were too far behind to catch up. Pushing the rest of her pace, she was able to knock nine seconds off her women’s-only world record of 2:15:41 from last year’s race. Radcliffe’s absolute race record has not been broken.

“I screamed when I finished because I knew I was breaking the world record,” Assefa told the race’s media team. “I felt a lot healthier today and I’ve been working hard on my speed and all my training has paid off. I thank God for this fantastic competition and I wanted to thank my competitors, many of whom are my friends. They’ve done great and they’ve done well.”

Obiri, running his first marathon with a pacemaker, set a massive personal best of 2:15:53. Jepkosgei, who won the race in 2021, finished third in 2:15:55. It was his fifth time on the podium in London.

Assefa earned $280,000 in prize money and publicly reported time bonuses. Obiri earned US$105,000 and Jepkosgei US$97,500. All three athletes also received appearance fees and potential personal bonuses.

The top British athlete was Eilish McColgan in seventh place in 2:24:51, slightly slower than her personal best of 2:24:25 in this race last year. Behind her was 2025 World Athletics Championships bronze medalist Julia Paternein in a personal best of 2:25:47. Paternein, who represents Uruguay and was born in Mexico, grew up in the UK and his participation was heavily promoted by race organisers. His mark was a national record.

In professional wheelchair racing, Switzerland’s Marcel Hoog bounced back from his Boston Marathon victory last Monday to collect his eighth TCS London Marathon winner’s trophy in 1:24:13. His margin of victory was 4:33.

“This guy is just unbeatable,” commentator Hannah England said during the race’s broadcast.

Another Swiss athlete, Catherine Debrunner, won the women’s wheelchair race against American Tatiana McFadden. The pair pushed together for most of the race, with Debrunner pulling away until the final turns of The Mall. His time was 1:38:29 and McFadden’s was 1:38:34. Boston Marathon winner Eden Rainbow-Cooper, who is from Britain, finished a distant 11th in 1:51:12.

Both wheelchair winners earned $55,000 in prize money, the same as Save and Asefa.

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*Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:41 in Vienna on October 12, 2019 in an exhibition marathon held under the World Athletics Rules.

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