The men's marathon world record has fallen by 55 minutes 48 seconds since 1908, and all 25 records set since 1999 came from Berlin, London or Chicago, none from New York.

Has anyone broken the 2 hour marathon?

Yes. Sabastian Sawe of Kenya broke the two-hour barrier officially for the first time in history, winning the London Marathon on April 26, 2026, in 1:59:30.^{2, 4} According to World Athletics, Sawe took 65 seconds off the previous men's marathon world record of 2:00:35, set by the late Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago in 2023.²

The day produced three sub-two-hour finishes. Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia crossed in 1:59:41, the fastest marathon debut ever recorded, and Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda finished third in 2:00:28, meaning all three men on the podium beat Kiptum's old mark.^{2, 4} Sawe covered the second half in 59:01.² Eliud Kipchoge had run 1:59:40 in a controlled exhibition in Vienna in 2019, but that performance used rotating pacemakers and did not count as an official record.^{4, 6}

Why do Berlin, London and Chicago produce all the world records?

The three cities share course and weather conditions that favour fast times. According to Marathons.com, Chicago's total elevation gain is just 74 metres over 42.195 km, the city sits on an ancient glacial lakebed, and the route is a closed loop with roughly twenty turns, giving runners long straightaways to lock into pace.⁵ The race is held in early October, when temperatures typically sit around 10 to 15 degrees Celsius, though heat has disrupted it before.⁵

Berlin's flat course has drawn record-chasers since 1977, when Christa Vahlensieck set the first world record there.¹ According to FloTrack, thirteen world records have been set at the Berlin Marathon in total.¹ London offers a similarly flat profile and, according to World Athletics, provided the conditions for Sawe's 1:59:30 on a mostly sunny day in the low 60s Fahrenheit.^{2, 4} All three races hold World Athletics Platinum Label status, which attracts the deepest elite fields and the pacing infrastructure needed for record attempts.⁵

What makes New York too slow for a marathon world record?

The chart facts show that New York's last world record was a women's 2:25:28 in 1981, and no record has been set there in the 25 records logged since 1999. The course itself is the key reason. Unlike Chicago's near-flat loop or London's and Berlin's record-friendly layouts, New York's five-borough route crosses five bridges, including the Verrazano-Narrows at the start and the Queensboro at mile 15, adding significant climbing that breaks the steady rhythm record attempts require.⁵

World Athletics rules require that a record-eligible course have a net downhill of no more than 1 metre per kilometre and that the start and finish not be more than 50 percent of the race distance apart.⁶ New York's point-to-point design and its elevation changes make it harder to meet the conditions that Berlin, London and Chicago routinely provide. According to Marathons.com, Chicago's course is specifically described as a "wide-open runway" for locking into pace, a description that does not fit New York's varied terrain.⁵

What do coaches and sports scientists say about the sub-2 hour barrier?

Adidas general manager of running Patrick Nava told the Wall Street Journal that Sawe's race-day shoe, a men's size 9, weighed 3.4 ounces, less than half the weight of an average running shoe.⁴

The debate over whether shoe technology amounts to what PBS NewsHour called "technology doping" remains ongoing.⁴ Kipchoge's 2019 exhibition run of 1:59:40, which used 41 rotating pacemakers and a specially designed course, showed the barrier was physically possible before Sawe made it official.^{4, 6} Sawe beat Kipchoge's exhibition time by 10 seconds on a standard race course.⁴

How much faster could the marathon world record get?

The Running Channel, writing before the 2026 London Marathon, outlined two scenarios: the men's record broken in Berlin and then possibly again in Chicago or Valencia, and at least four men running 2:01 or faster in 2026.³ That analysis proved conservative: Sawe ran 1:59:30 in London in April.²

On the women's side, The Running Channel noted that the women's marathon world record of 2:09:56, set by Ruth Chepngetich in Chicago in 2024, was unlikely to fall in 2026, but flagged Ethiopia's Fotyen Tesfay, who ran 2:10:51 on her marathon debut in March 2026, as a potential challenger.^{3, 6} According to Marathon Handbook, Tesfay's time is the second-fastest women's marathon in history.⁶ The Running Channel reported that Tesfay stated her intention to target the world record later in 2026, and as an Adidas athlete she was expected to race Berlin.³ Whether the women's record falls remains an open question: the gap between Tesfay's 2:10:51 and Chepngetich's 2:09:56 is 55 seconds.