London Marathon completed in less than two hours – what does it mean for elite athletes?
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What historical achievement was made at the London Marathon?
Sebastian Saue yesterday made history at the London Marathon by becoming the first athlete to run a sub-two-hour time in a competitive race. The 31-year-old Kenyan runner finished in one hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds, more than one minute faster than the late Kelvin Kipton's previous record set in 2023. To take a closer look at this... I'm joined in studio by Greg Allen, athletics commentator with RTE Sport and on the line by Olympian and RTE commentator David Gillick. Good morning to you both. David, I might start with you. Extraordinary achievement. How far into the race was there an indication that he might break the record?
Yeah, look, it's one of these moments in sport where it'll be talked about for a very long time. This has been something that has been on the horizon for probably a good couple of years, you know, from Kipchoge, Eli Kipchoge trying it over the last couple of years in a non-race scenario.
How did Sebastian Sawe's performance compare to previous records?
But this is the first time that we've seen it in a competitive environment. um i think early on you know a lot of people kind of looking at this race and maybe not expecting it to be a sub two hour performance but when you look and you break down the splits and where these athletes were running and even the depth um that they were going at you're beginning to kind of go okay something could be on here today and i think for me when i was kind of looking at the breakdown of the whole kind of splits like halfway when they go through halfway um just over the arrow mark and then you're kind of going okay yeah possibly on for something here but from 30k on the pace just increases and like from 30 to 40k you're looking at running like a 27 10k uh from 30k to 40k in a marathon is just amazing and then to push that even further you're kind of going okay something something's on here
And the key thing as well I'd look at is a bit of that strength and depth. You know, the quality of the top three athletes was really impressive at that point. So the competitive instinct comes into it as well. But to maintain that pace and then to go a little bit quicker, like you're talking about, you know, sub-14-minute 5Ks, sub-14-minute park runs, you know, at the end of a marathon is just incredible.
Greg, just that last... That last 5K at that clip, something extraordinary, really, isn't it? After everything that's gone before.
So even the organisers didn't anticipate that this could happen because they set the pacemaking out to be at two hour and one minute pace at halfway. So they set a 60 minute, 30 second pace for the pacemakers out front, pulling them, Sebastian, that way along. And then at that point, he accelerates off that to run the second half of the race, a half marathon in 59 minutes and one second, which was a minute and a half quicker than the first half of the race. And the first half of the race had been set by pacemakers who all dropped out. Like it is to some degree otherworldly in terms of what he did. And David's right. The athletes behind him, Yomif Kijelke and Jacob Cablimo, they're highly proficient track runners.
who are chasing Sawe, who's really just a diehard marathon runner. He's a good track runner, but these guys behind him are now probably going to take this record into the 159 territory and possibly breaking it. What we're seeing here is 72 years ago, the four-minute mile was broken by Roger Bannister, the greatest barrier in athletics at that time.
What insights do the commentators provide about the race dynamics?
And since then, this is the next great barrier to be broken. And after this, actually, the women's four-minute mile is the next great barrier to be broken. But this one is extraordinary in lots of ways. But big caveat. The technology in science of marathon running has gone leaps and bounds, literally, figuratively and literally, in the last 10 years because super shoes were introduced in 2016. Nike put all the research and development into them, and now Adidas have perfected them. All three, one, two, three yesterday, were all wearing the new version of the super shoes. Now, by super shoes, I mean these are heavily...
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What historical achievement was made at the London Marathon?
0:00–0:58
2
How did Sebastian Sawe's performance compare to previous records?
0:58–3:24
3
What insights do the commentators provide about the race dynamics?
3:24–9:08
4
How have technological advancements affected marathon running?
9:08–13:15
5
What role do nutrition and energy gels play in marathon performance?
13:15–14:10