Kenyan Sabastian Sawe has once again won the London Marathon, but this time with a historic detail: he stopped the clock at 1:59:30, breaking the two-hour mark in an official race. He defends his title from the previous year and leaves Kelvin Kiptum's record 35 seconds behind. Meanwhile, Eliud Kipchoge achieved a similar time in 2019, but that did not count as it was not an open race.
The footwear and strategy behind Sawe's record 🏃♂️
The breakthrough is not just physical. Sawe ran with the latest generation carbon fiber shoes, designed to return up to 4% more energy with each stride. Additionally, the pacemaker team used a real-time GPS pacing system, synchronized with an electric car that marked the optimal trajectory. The combination of aerodynamics, featherweight design, and foot strike control made it possible to maintain a pace of 2:50 per kilometer for 42 kilometers without faltering.
What Kipchoge could not do, Sawe did with pacemakers and GPS 🏆
And while Kipchoge runs on closed circuits with cars and screens, Sawe stands in London, with traffic, curves, and the occasional clueless tourist, and breaks the two-hour mark as if going to buy bread. Of course, Kipchoge's feat remains equally valid: the difference is that his was not official, like when you say you hit 200 bpm on the couch watching TV.