Kenyan Sabastian Sawe has claimed victory at the 2025 London Marathon in his major debut, defeating two-time Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, who finished sixth.
Sawe pulled away from a leading group of nine runners about 90 minutes into the race on Sunday, April 27, crossing the finish line in a time of 2:02:27.
Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, the half marathon world record holder making his full marathon debut, was the only runner to give chase but was unable to close the gap. He finished second in 2:03:37, roughly 70 seconds behind Sawe.
The men’s race also featured defending London champion Alex Mutiso and Olympic gold medallist Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia. Mutiso finished third (2:04:20), Dutchman Abdi Nageeye came fourth (2:04:20), Tola was fifth (2:04:42), while Kipchoge rounded out the top six with a time of 2:05:25.
In the women’s race, Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa won by a considerable margin, smashing the women’s-only world record in the process with a time of 2:15:50, missing the overall course by 25 seconds.
Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei finished second in 2:18:44, while the Dutch Olympic marathon champion, Sifan Hassan, came third in 2:19:00.
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Sawe beats Kipchoge in his first race since Paris Olympics
The London Marathon triumph by Sebastian Sawe marks his second career marathon win, having previously taken the title in Valencia in 2024.
He is now the fourth consecutive Kenyan to win the men’s race in London.
Eliud Kipchoge on his part returned to the course which was his first run since dropping out of the Paris 2024 Olympics run.
The four-time winner of the London Marathon had not raced in the British capital since 2020.
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He finished eighth in his last London Marathon appearance in 2020 and was seeking his first victory since winning the Berlin Marathon for the fifth time in 2023.
The race could potentially be the final in London for the Kenyan, who is the only man to have ever run a sub-two-hour marathon—in a technology-assisted event in Vienna—and holds three of the fastest ten times in marathon history.
In October 2019, the former world marathon record holder achieved an extraordinary milestone by becoming the first man to complete that distance in under two hours.
Clocking an incredible time of 1:59:40, the Kenyan cemented his name in the history books and solidified his status as a legend of distance running.
His monumental achievement was, however, not officially recognized as a world record as it was not run under open marathon conditions.
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