Kenay’s Sabastian Sawe ran 1:59:30 at the London Marathon on Sunday to become the first athlete to officially break the two-hour mark in a sanctioned racetaking 65 seconds off Kelvin Kiptum’s world record.
The run followed months of an unusual anti-doping investigation that Sawe requested amid ongoing allegations surrounding Kenyan athletics. It also came after a disrupted build-up, with leg and back injuries late in 2025 delaying his training ahead of his return in January 2026.
Midway through 2025, with more than 140 Kenyan athletes suspended because of the wider doping crisis, Sawe and Adidas approached the Athletics Integrity Unit ahead of September’s Berlin Marathon with a simple plea: “Test me as much as possible.” According to The Guardian, Sawe underwent 25 out-of-competition tests in the two months leading up to his win in Berlin.
Adidas has committed $50,000 to the expanded testing program, with individual tests costing up to $2,000. The funding continued until 2026. Sawe said he wanted to show that it was possible to reach the top “doing it the right way”.
Sawe said the tests reflected the pressure Kenyan athletes were under due to doping allegations. He described a schedule of blood and urine tests several times a week, including one day when he was tested twice, once in the morning and again late in the evening.
SAWE’S RISE
Born in March 1995 in Nandi District, Sawe grew up in a mud house with no electricity. His mother, Emily, and grandmother, Esther, shaped his early years, and his mother recalled, “Wherever he went, he ran.”
He lived ten minutes’ walk from Cheukta Primary School, a distance that no one in his village walked.
His rise was not instantaneous. In 2022, he was hired as a pacemaker for the Seville half-marathon, but instead of stopping at the designated spot, he drove on and won the race.
In London, the leading group, which included Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia and Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, reached the halfway point in 1:00:29. Sawe then produced 59:01 of the second half. As Kejelch’s inexperience on his debut began to show in the closing stages, Sawe found another speed in the final mile and finished alone in the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 boots.
His preparations were hit by a stress fracture in his foot and then a back injury at the end of 2025, leaving him unable to train properly for months. He didn’t get back on the road until January 2026, and by February his coach Claudio Berardelli said his “body responded” in a way that made the goal seem possible.
After the race, Sawe turned to Kiptum, who died in a car crash in 2024 aged 24 and was widely expected to be the first man to reach the mark.
“First of all, Kelvin was such a talented guy,” Sawe told LetsRun.
“He lost his life. I feel sorry for the family. Today is another day in London. I just wanted to keep the spirit of how Kelvin would run if he was here.”
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
27 Apr 2026 12:36 IST
