Big move leads to major title
Sawe victorious in London Marathon after making break in 31st kilometer

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya continued his impressive transition from a world champion half marathon runner to an elite marathoner in the London Marathon on Sunday when he won the men’s race after making a bold move with more than 30 minutes left in the contest.
The 30-year-old Sawe had been at the front of a nine-runner lead pack when he came through 30 kilometers. But he made a break at an aid station shortly after that on his way to a winning time of 2 hours 2 minutes 27 seconds, the second fastest ever run in London and the quickest in the world this year.
Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, who had lowered the world record in the half marathon by a stunning 48 seconds in February, set a national record of 2:03:37 while finishing second in his highly-anticipated marathon debut.
Defending champion Alexander Mutiso Munyao of Kenya finished third in 2:04:20 in a race in which he and fourth-place Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands were credited with the same time.
They were followed by 2024 Olympic champion Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, who placed fifth in 2:04:42, and 2016 and 2021 Olympic gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, who finished sixth in 2:05:25. It was a nice rebound race for the 40-year-old Kipchoge, who had dropped out of the Olympic Games in Paris while dealing with a back issue.
“I was very confident because I came in well prepared,” Sawe said in a World Athletics post. “That got me through today.”
Sawe, who is regarded as somewhat of a late bloomer in the world of elite distance running, had won seven of nine races in the half marathon from 2022-24, with his biggest victory coming in the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, in 2023.
He was victorious in half marathons in Prague, Czechia, and Copenhagen, Denmark, last year before making a smashing marathon debut in Valencia, Spain, in December when he ran a winning 2:02:05 over that city’s hyper-fast course.
Although that time was the eighth fastest in history and moved Sawe to fifth on the all-time performer list, two-time World cross country champion Kiplimo seemed to have received more pre-race attention due to his scintillating 56:42 clocking in the half marathon in Barcelona on Feb. 16.
That performance had been so impressive that there was a lot of pre-race chatter about the possibility of Kiplimo not only breaking the world record of 2:00:35 set by the late Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya in Chicago in 2023, but of him becoming the first man to run two hours in a race.
However, the early tempo on Sunday was never fast enough for that to happen as a trio of pacesetters came through the first five kilometers in 14:25 and the opening 10 kilometers in 28:57.
While those splits were very respectable, the 28:57 clocking at 10k projected to a final time of 2:02:07 and the lead group was on pace for a time of 2:03:00 after coming through the halfway point in 1:01:30.
After the top 10 runners were credited with times of 1:01:30 or 1:01:31 at that point in the race, the lead group had been reduced to nine when Sawe came through 25 kilometers in 1:13:00. It remained at nine when the leading trio of Sawe, compatriot Hillary Kipkoech and Tola passed the 30-kilometer mark in 1:27:47. But the incredibly relaxed-looking Sawe chose not to take any liquids at an aid station shortly after that and he had a lead of about 10 seconds at the 1:31:00 mark and was 22 seconds ahead of second-place Kiplimo when he passed 35 kilometers in 1:41:43.
Sawe was looking a little winded at that point after having run the previous five kilometers in a superb 13:56. But he appeared to be more in control 10 minutes later and his lead over Kiplimo had increased to 46 seconds when he passed 40 kilometers in 1:56:03.
“I'm so excited about what I did today,” Kiplimo said in a cbc.ca post before adding that he realized at one point that he did not have a chance at running down Sawe after his big break.
“I knew that Sawe had already left… Unfortunately the gap was a little bit big.”
Although Sawe slowed down some during the final 2.2 kilometers of the race, his 6:24 split during that segment of the contest added another 21 seconds to his margin of victory over Kiplimo.
Behind Kipchoge’s sixth-place time of 2:05:25, Kipkoech placed seventh in 2:06:05, followed by Amanal Petros of Germany in 2:06:30.
”I saw that as my opportunity to push. And I ran well,” Sawe said of the surge he made at the aid station.
He then added that his performance gave him hope “that in the future, the marathon will be so important to me, and be so easy.”
Sunday’s race was the third of seven World Marathon Major events to be held this year.
The next World Marathon Major will be the Sydney Marathon on August 31, followed by the Berlin Marathon on Sept. 21, the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 12, and the New York City Marathon on Nov. 2.
The World Athletics Championships in Tokyo will hold the men’s marathon on Sept. 15.