Sabastian Sawe made history in the history of the marathon by becoming the first athlete to officially run the race under two hours during a competition.
The 30-year-old Kenyan crossed the finish line to win in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds – that’s more than a minute faster than Kelvin Kiptum’s previous record of 2 hours and 35 seconds, set in 2023. Kiptum died in 2024 in a car accident at the age of 24.
Eliud Kipchoge, also from Kenya, became the first man to run a marathon in under two hours in 2019, but the feat was not eligible for a record as it was performed under controlled conditions and not in a competitive race.
Remarkably, Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who finished second to Sawe in London, also recorded a time under two hours (1:59:41).
In the same event, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa improved her own world record in the women’s race by crossing the line in 2:15:41.
So how did athletes from East Africa in general – and Kenya and Ethiopia in particular – come to dominate elite long-distance running?
Running in the altitudes of East Africa
Like many other sports, long-distance running has benefited from improvements in training regimes, nutrition and equipment – notably the lighter, higher-tech running shoes that have been linked to faster performances over the past seven years.
The men’s marathon world record, for example, has fallen by more than four minutes in the last 20 years, and a similar rate is also seen among women.
But there are few sports in which top dominance belongs to a few countries in the same region.
In the last five Olympic Games, Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes have won the most medals in running events over 800m.
In the men’s marathon, only two of the 20 fastest times ever were not recorded by a Kenyan or Ethiopian runner – in the women’s marathon, 18 of the 20 fastest runners are also from those two countries.
A crucial factor in the winning equation is linked to a mountainous region in east Africa known as the Rift Valley. Most of the elite runners in both Kenya and Ethiopia originate from there.
Scientific studies have shown that runners who live in cities and towns high above sea level – especially those born there – develop stronger hearts and lungs when regularly training at high altitudes and with lower oxygen levels.
This, of course, is not a guarantee of success. There are countries with people living at high altitudes, such as Nepal and Bolivia, that have failed to achieve the same impact on the global stage. What seems to really differentiate Kenyans and Ethiopians is also how running has been ingrained in everyday life in these countries for generations.
Culture and goals
Urbanization has advanced considerably in Africa since the days when legendary Ethiopian runner Haile Gebreselassie was a child and the norm was to walk long distances. But running through the streets remains culturally relevant in Ethiopia and Kenya.
Marc Roig, a former elite Spanish runner who lived and worked in Kenya for several years, says he had to “lower the ball” when talking to people in the region about the times he set in a race.
“I don’t say I’m a runner anymore,” jokes Roig.
The Spaniard is currently overseeing a talent development project in the town of Iten, around 260km north of the capital Nairobi and 2,400 meters above sea level. Iten is known locally as “the home of champions” as it is the birthplace of many present and past elite Kenyan runners, including Olympic medalists.
Having legends around and seeing them walk the streets like mere mortals, says Roig, helps younger people envision a career in athletics. And the same goes for the prospect of making money from it in a country and on a continent where poverty is still a problem, especially in rural areas.
“Just as poorer children in Brazil and Argentina dream of a career in football, Kenyans see athletics as a chance to make a living, and are inspired by having so many role models around,” argues Roig.
Below 2 hours: it already happened
Google “2-hour marathon” and you’ll find the news that two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge managed to cover the distance in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 40 seconds in 2019, in a specially organized event in Vienna.
He had already made a previous attempt promoted by American sporting goods giant Nike two years earlier, on a Formula 1 circuit in the Italian city of Monza, but failed.
However, none of these times are recognized by World Athletics, the governing body for athletics, because they were obtained in conditions outside of a normal competition. Kipchoge, for example, was helped by a group of elite runners who took turns setting the pace and running alongside him, exerting a “pull” effect on his performance.
The Kenyan even had drinks delivered by bicycle, instead of using traditional fixed points along the route as is the case in regular races.
Kipchoge didn’t seem bothered by the asterisk next to his brand, especially after reportedly receiving a sum in the millions for the feat, as did Andrew Jones, the British sports scientist who worked with the Kenyan on both projects.
“Personally, I don’t care if the mark is unofficial. Everyone involved in the sport wanted to know if running under two hours was possible, and we proved it was,” the University of Exeter academic told the BBC.
“Even with the controlled environment, Kipchoge still needed an extraordinary performance to reach that time.”
A punishment for the body
To say that elite marathon times are not easy to achieve is an understatement. Kiptum, for example, cut through the streets of Chicago in 2023 at an average pace of approximately 2 minutes and 51 seconds per kilometer. According to the most recent data from World Athletics (2019), the global average pace of the male amateur marathon runner is 6 minutes and 43 seconds per kilometer.
This doesn’t come without serious damage to the body, even for a professional, explains Jones. “It’s a long distance to be covered at high intensity; the body takes punishment regardless of the runner’s level. And there is also a mental load.”
The wear and tear suffered by muscles, bones and joints, combined with strenuous training – in which athletes run at least 160 km per week – explains why elite runners cannot participate in more than a few races per year.
Was Sawe a ‘Rift Valley Surprise’?
While Kipchoge was an obvious candidate for a sub-two-hour run, experts who spoke to the BBC previously had not ruled out another “Rift Valley surprise” like Kiptum, who set the world record in 2023 in his third run.
“That runner may already be there in the Rift Valley as there are so many talented runners there that we don’t know about yet,” Kenyan athletics commentator and former runner Martin Keino told the BBC in 2024.
And Sawe certainly did: the London race was only the fourth race in the marathon career of the 31-year-old, who was also born in the Rift Valley.
But the signs were already there: Sawe had won his three previous races, but not in less than two hours.
Have women already broken the time barrier?
It was only in the 1970s that female runners were allowed to compete in major road races, such as the New York Marathon, and only in the 1980s to participate in the Olympics and world championships.
It’s fair to say they haven’t looked back. The fastest time fell from 2 hours 55 minutes to the 2 hours 17 minutes mark between 1971 and 2002, before being pulverized by Kenyan Brigid Kosei in the 2019 Chicago Marathon (2:14:04). This record was then surpassed on the streets of Berlin in September 2023 by Tigist Assefa (2:11:53) – the race in the German capital featured men and women running together.
In fact, a 2015 study by American sports scientists claimed that women already achieved their equivalent “impossible” mark in 2003, when Britain’s Paula Radcliffe ran the London Marathon in 2:15:25.
