Sawe wins London Marathon while Asssefa shatters women’s-only record

Sabastian Sawe of Team Kenya celebrates winning the London Marathon

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the London Marathon for his biggest career victory while Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record.

Sawe pulled away from a leading group of nine runners about 90 minutes into the race and finished in two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds.

The 29-year-old made his move when his rivals slowed down at a drinks station – opting not to take any water despite warm temperatures.

Jacob Kiplimo, the half marathon world record holder who was making his full marathon debut, was the only runner able to give chase but could never get close to erasing the gap. The Ugandan finished about 70 seconds back in second place.

In the women’s race, Assefa of Ethiopia secured her first London Marathon title after pulling away from Joyciline Jepkosgei.

Assefa finished in a time of two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds, the fastest ever in a women’s-only marathon – but 25 seconds slower than the course record set by Paula Radcliffe in 2003 when it was a mixed race.

Assefa finished second both in London and at the Paris Olympics last year but adds this title to two Berlin Marathon wins.

Unlike in Paris, she made sure there would be no sprint finish this time as she left Jepkosgei behind with a few kilometres left and ran alone along the River Thames and through central London to the finish in front of Buckingham Palace.

Jepkosgei, the 2021 London winner, was almost three minutes back while Olympic champion Sifan Hassan was third.

It was a Swiss double in the wheelchair events, with Marcel Hug racing to his sixth London marathon title in one hour, 25 minutes and 25 seconds and Catherine Debrunner winning her third women’s title in four years in one hour, 34 minutes and 18 seconds, missing her own world record by two seconds.

A world record 56,000 runners were expected to participate in the 42.195-kilometre race that started at Greenwich Park, snaked along the River Thames before finishing on The Mall.