World record ratified

The paperwork has caught up with the history.

World Athletics has ratified Sabastian Sawe's 1:59:30 from the London Marathon on April 26. It is now the first sub-two-hour marathon ever run in a record-eligible race.

The mark takes 65 seconds off Kelvin Kiptum's previous world record of 2:00:35 from Chicago in October 2023.

This one matters. Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 in Vienna back in 2019, but that was a staged exhibition with rotating pacers and it did not count. Sawe's run in London was a regular, race-day marathon. Fully legal. Fully ratified.

He did not do it alone. Yomif Kejelcha also broke two hours in second, running 1:59:41, the fastest debut marathon in history. Jacob Kiplimo took third in 2:00:28.

Tigst Assefa's women-only world record from the same day is also now official. Her 2:15:41 takes nine seconds off her own mark set in London in 2025.

Both were sensational on the day.

Now they are set in the book for good.