Sabastian Sawe's historic sub-two-hour marathon has officially been ratified as a world record.
The 1:59:30 performance at the TCS London Marathon now confirmed among the latest records approved by World Athletics.
Sawe's achievement was ratified alongside eight other world records, including Tigst Assefa's women's marathon record, Mondo Duplantis' pole vault mark and Yan Ziyi's U20 women's javelin record.
Sawe and Assefa produced world-record performances in the men's and women's races while retaining their titles at the TCS London Marathon on April 26, 2026.
Sawe became the first man to break two hours in a record-eligible marathon when he clocked 1:59:30 in London.
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His performance lowered the previous men's marathon world record of 2:00:35, set by the late Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago on October 8, 2023, by 65 seconds.
Sawe was involved in a historic battle with Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha and Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo before making his decisive move with one mile remaining.
Sawe pulled away from his rivals to win in 1:59:30, while Kejelcha also broke the two-hour barrier after finishing in 1:59:41.
Kiplimo completed the podium in 2:00:28.
The ratification list also included the men's short-track 4x800m world record of 7:10.29 set by the United States team of Clay Pender, Luke Houser, Luciano Fiore and Sean Dolan in Philadelphia on February 6, 2026.
Khaleb McRae's men's short-track 400m record of 44.52, set in Fayetteville on February 13, 2026, was also ratified.
Sweden's Mondo Duplantis had his men's pole vault world record of 6.31 metres, set in Uppsala on March 12, 2026, officially approved.
Switzerland's Simon Ehammer also had his men's heptathlon world record of 6,670 points, set in Torun on March 21, 2026, ratified.
The women's 60m hurdles world record of 7.65 seconds set by the Bahamas' Devynne Charlton in Torun on March 22, 2026, was also included.
Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa had her women's marathon world record of 2:15:41, set in London on April 26, 2026, ratified alongside Sawe's men's mark.
China's Yan Ziyi also had her U20 women's javelin world record of 71.74 metres, set in Xiamen on May 23, 2026, officially ratified.
Notably, Sawe has been confirmed for the 2026 BMW Berlin Marathon, where he will return to defend his title.
He heads into the September 27 race in strong form after his victory in London, where he delivered a sub-two-hour performance, raising expectations ahead of Berlin.
In a statement on Wednesday, May 13, the BMW Berlin Marathon confirmed that thousands of athletes from around the world are expected to participate in this year’s edition.
"At this year’s BMW BERLIN-MARATHON, almost 80,000 participants from 160 nations are expected including runners, wheelchair athletes, hands cyclists and skaters," the organization said.
Sawe is expected to compete in Adidas’ Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 as fans anticipate another potential record attempt on the historic course
Speaking ahead of the race, he said he is focused on preparation and delivering his best possible performance on race day.
"After coming off my win in London and sub-2 performance, I can only say that, like always, I plan to prepare myself to the best of my ability and to come to Berlin to honor this great event and organization which have invited me, and to run as well and fast as possible. Then on the day we will see what will happen," Sawe stated.
