Sabastian Sawe became the first man to run under two hours for a marathon in race conditions thanks to extraordinary talent and a committed training regime.

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.

Unique talent

Second-placed Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia 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 forever. I had courage to push even when the pace was so fast," he added.

"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."

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

'Still discovering who Sawe is'

"All of the pieces came together perfectly because of his attitude, because of his character. I am still in the process of discovering who Sabastian 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 200 kilometres 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."

Win comes amid doping scrutiny in athletics

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 banned for doping.

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.

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