They call Sabastian Sawe the silent assassin. And, whisper it, but the Kenyan may just take down the men’s world marathon record in London on Sunday.
It is an imposing target, set by Kelvin Kiptum in 2023, which stands at two hours and 35 seconds. But Sawe believes he is in similar shape to when he went for the world record in Berlin last September, only to be thwarted by temperatures in the mid-20s centigrade.
Intriguingly, this time he also comes armed with Adidas’s new Pro Evo 3 supershoe, which weighs in at an astonishingly light 96 grams, and he says is even faster than its predecessor. Asked on Friday whether it could lead to him breaking Kiptum’s London course record of 2:01:25 or maybe his world record, Sawe gave a short and partly instructive answer: “Yes,” he said, to laughter.
And while the London course is not as fast as Berlin or Chicago, Sawe’s agent, Eric Lilot, says that they will ask the pacemakers to go through halfway in 60 minutes and 30 seconds which at least gives him a chance of making history, especially given there are tailwinds forecast for the final few miles.
“He’s a silent assassin,” Lilot added. “He’s so quiet. But when he steps on the road he is a beast.”
Sawe’s coach, Claudio Berardelli, also confirmed that last year’s London Marathon winner had fully recovered from a stress fracture in his foot after Berlin and a back injury in December, which made him miss 10 days of training.
“When he got the back problem, I was like: ‘Hey, no rush, let’s fix it’,” said Berardelli. “And if we can be ready for London, then we might see what to do. But by early February, he was impressive. We took our risks a little bit in terms of picking up the volume again and the intensity. But his body responded.”
And given Sawe has run only four marathons, Berardelli is convinced there is more in the tank. “I’ve been coaching for more than 20 years in Kenya, and when I started dealing with Sabastian, I immediately realised this is not just a good athlete, this is not just one of the best Kenyan guys. At least for my experiences, he is a different human being. An outlier.”
However, Sawe will not have it all his own way given he faces a stacked field of Kenyan and Ethiopian talents, which includes Jacob Kiplimo, who shattered the half-marathon world record by running 57min 20sec last month, the Olympic champion Tamirat Tola and Yomif Kejelcha, who makes his marathon debut having won world 10,000m silver in September.
Some informed voices believe Kejelcha will make the podium . His pedigree and his half-marathon personal best of 57:30 suggests they could be right. But Kiplimo, who came second to Sawe in London last year in 2:03:37 in his marathon debut, is the most intriguing rival.
Before Friday’s press conference the pair staged a boxing-style face-off, looking into each other’s eyes as the cameras flashed. All that was missing was the race director, Hugh Brasher, keeping them apart.
Asked whether he could take down the favourite, Kiplimo said that he had increased his mileage and was better prepared compared with last year. “We will see on Sunday,” he added. “But I know we are going to battle together.” That battle could, of course, make a world record less likely – with the top men watching each other more than the clock.
British interest is dampened by the withdrawal of Emile Cairess through injury. However, Patrick Dever, who finished third in the New York Marathon, along with Phil Sesemann and Mohamed Mohamed will all try to go through halfway in 2:06.30 pace.
Meanwhile, the women’s race may well turn into a two-way battle between the defending champion, Tigst Assefa, who also won Olympic silver in Paris, and Hellen Obiri, who took bronze in Paris and has won the Boston and New York marathons. However, the Valencia champion Joyciline Jepkosgei could yet prove the fly in the ointment in what looks to be an intriguing race.