San Francisco Frontiers - How remarkable Sawe made marathon history in London

In London on Sunday, the 31-year-old Kenyan achieved one of sport's milestones, ranking alongside Roger Bannister's first sub-four minute mile in 1954.

His time of 1hr 59min 30 sec was an astonishing 65 seconds inside the previous best of 2:00:35 set in Chicago in 2023 by Kelvin Kiptum, whose death in a car crash in 2024 plunged Kenya into mourning.

Sawe's statistics were dizzying. He went through the first half in 60:29 and then got faster, clocking a remarkable 59:01 for the second.

Sawe undoubtedly benefited from the technological arms race launched by the shoe companies a decade ago, when they began developing carbon fibre shoes for elite runners.

The newly developed Adidas shoes he was wearing to navigate the streets of London were the first to weigh under 100 grammes.

They clearly made a difference -- second-placed Yomif Kejelcha was wearing them too and the Ethiopian also broke the two-hour barrier, finishing in 1:59:41.

"I have made history today in London," Sawe said.

"It's something that will remain in my mind for ever.

"I had courage to push even when the pace was so fast.

"I was not bothered because I was ready for it. The crowd helped me a lot because they were cheering and calling my name... The world record today is also because of them."

- 'Still discovering' -

Sawe's Italian coach Claudio Berardelli told reporters he was honoured to be guiding such a unique talent.

"All of the pieces came together perfectly because of his attitude, because of his character. I am still in the process of discovering who Sebastian is," he said.

Berardelli said his athlete had been even fitter than in Berlin in September when the late-summer heat had spoiled his previous assault on the world record.

"In the last six weeks he was averaging 200km (125 miles) and above a week, while the peak was 241km," he said.

"I knew he was super-good for Berlin, but he couldn't express himself because of the conditions.

"But when I started to see him running the way he ran before London, I was like, hey, something special might come out."

Sawe's achievement will inevitably be viewed against the backdrop of an appalling series of doping cases among Kenyan athletes in the last few years.

Two former Kenyan winners of the men's race at the London Marathon -- Wilson Kipsang, the victor in 2012 and 2014, and 2017 winner Daniel Wanjiru -- are among those to have been subsequently banned.

In a bid to allay such suspicions about his own performances, Sawe has voluntarily subjected himself to extra drug testing, even paying $50,000 to be tested 25 times in the year by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) before last year's Berlin race.

"Sebastian is not just a good one, he is a special one," Berardelli said.

W.Thompson--SFF