Kenya's Sawe breaks two-hour mark in record-breaking London marathon

It was a record breaking day at the 2026 London Marathon. Kenya's Sabastian Sawe made history by becoming the first man to run a marathon in under two hours.

Many locals call it London’s best day of the year. The event is expected to raise over $130 million for charity. 

Since its inception in 1981, the London marathon is now regarded as one of the most prestigious races in the world. And once again, some of the best marathon runners on the planet took part in this year's edition.

But for many, the London marathon is all about the thousands of amateur runners pushing their bodies to the limit raising hundreds of millions of dollars for charity.

Last year's race raised over $117m setting a new world record for the largest one-day fundraising event, a figure they are expected to beat this year.

Star-studded race

CGTN Europe spoke to two of the stars from the London cast of the classic musical Les Miserables, who both completed the marathon raising money for the HIV awareness charity the Terence Higgins Trust.

"It was amazing, it was the hardest thing I've ever done," Noah Thallon, one of the musical stars, told CGTN Europe. "I found Canary Wharf the hardest bit but I was running with my best friend Jordan and he could lift me up during [the race] and then I came back to lift him up at the end."

Thallon's friend Jordan Simon Pollard told CGTN Europe, "It's the best day of my life. Honestly, it was just the atmosphere and everything that was incredible. It was hard. Right at the end, I was getting cramps but I had my friend with me so it was great."

New world records set

The men's race was won by Sabastian Sawe of Kenya in a world record time of 1 hour 59 mins and 30 secs while in the women's event, Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa won her second successive London marathon in  2 hours 15 minutes and 41 seconds.

Behind them, thousands more were still running their own personal races, being cheered on by a huge crowd.

This year's event is also expected to set new records in terms of raising money for charity.

It has prompted the organizers to make plans for next year's marathon to be a two-day event with as many as 100,000 taking part potentially raising over $175m for good causes.