Sawe shattered Kelvin Kiptum's previous world record of 2:00:35 at the London Marathon, becoming the first athlete to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a competitive race.

Historic finish in London

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya ran the marathon in under two hours at the London Marathon, becoming the first person in history to break the barrier in a competitive race, Sawe said in an interview after the event.

The run erases Kelvin Kiptum's previous world record of 2:00:35, a mark that had stood as the sport's defining ceiling.

Parents react

Back in Kenya, Sawe's parents Emily and Simion Sawe watched their son make history. "I jumped around the house," Emily Sawe said, describing the moment the time appeared on screen.

Women's race

Ethiopia's Tigist Assefa retained her women's crown at the same event, according to race results from London.

What it means for the sport

Sawe said the performance would "move the goalposts for marathon running." The sub-two-hour threshold had long been treated as the sport's equivalent of the four-minute mile — a psychological and physiological boundary widely debated as unbreakable in a sanctioned race.

Earlier this month, Kenya's John Korir won the Boston Marathon in 2 hours, 1 minute, and 52 seconds, a run described as the world's fifth-fastest time at that point, underlining the depth of the current wave of East African distance running.