By Claire Blakely (Y10)
On the 26 of April, 59,000 runners took their places at the starting line to run the historic London Marathon. A marathon is an extremely hard, long-distance race that spans over 26.2 miles (42.2 km). The London Marathon is known for its course that goes past landmarks like the London Eye, Tower Bridge, before finishing around Big Ben.
Men’s Elite Race
For the first time in human history, not one, but TWO athletes managed to run under 2 hours. The previous men’s record, held by Kelvin Kiptum was 2:00:30 but outstanding athlete Sabastian Sawe obliterated that record with a time of 1:59:30. In 2019, Eliuit Kip’Chogen did a project to run under 2 hours and succeeded, running a time of 1:59:43. However, this did not count as an official record since it was in lab conditions (he had pacers to help him the whole way through) and wasn’t in an actual race. Even if it did count, Sawe would’ve beaten it anyway!
Yomif Kejelcha, an Ethiopian runner, came second, just 11 seconds away from the world record himself. However, he still made history as he became the second man to run under 2 hours with a time of 1:59:41. Imagine running sub-2h and not even winning? Still, despite the heartbreak, Kejelcha said he was happy with his race and said it felt ‘pretty crazy’ to run 26.2 miles under 2 hours on his debut marathon.
Ugandan athlete Jacob Kiplimo, who placed third on the podium, also had outstanding resu
lts. With his time (2:00:28), he would’ve broken the previous world record.
Even though Sawe came out on top, I think the world will always remember the 2 men who ran under 2 hours. It is pretty remarkable! This shows the power of having someone to push you, as Sawe admitted he wouldn’t have run the time that he did without Kejelcha to motivate him.
Women’s Solo Elite Race
In the women’s category, there are two races possible (with two records respectively) in the marathon: the ‘Mixed-gender’ race and the ‘Women’s only’ race. As you may have guessed, in the mixed gender race, women start at the same time as the men (providing them a pacing advantage as they are ‘pulled’ by the men), while in the Women’s Only one, they start earlier than the Men and race on their own without pacers.
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa sets the record at 2:15:41 as of 2026, defending the previous title that she set last year in the same course.
Kenya’s Hellen Obiri finished just 12 seconds behind, doing her personal best at 2:15:53. Another runner, Jepkosgei, was running at the same pace as them up until 7k from the finish when Hassan initiated the sprinting phase. Finally, a few KM from the end, Assefa picked up the pace and broke the two Kenyans; Obiri just couldn’t hold on.
They also made history as they became the first three women to run under 2:16:00 in a Women’s Only race ever.