World Athletics has officially ratified Sabastien Kimaru sawe’s World marathon record set during the London marathon held on April 26th in the Great Britain.
Sawe joins seven other athletes and one world U20 record set during the first five months of 2026 have been ratified by World Athletics.
Sawe became the first man to break two hours in a record-eligible marathon, clocking 1:59:30 to take 65 seconds off the world record of 2:00:35 set by the late Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago on 8 October 2023.
Sawe set the record by beating Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo who came second and third in 1 1:59:41 and 2:00:28 respectively.
Other records that were ratified include the Simon Ehammer and Devynne Charlton World Athletics Indoor Championships Kujawy Pomorze 26 in March.
Ehammergot it at world indoor heptathlon title with a score of 6670, breaking the long-standing world record of 6645 set by USA’s Ashton Eaton in Istanbul on 10 March 2012.
Tigst Assefa produced world record performances in the men’s and women’s races when retaining their titles at the London Marathon on 26 April after defending her title in 2:15:41, taking nine seconds off the women-only world record of 2:15:50 that she set in London on 27 April 2025.
She edged out Kenya’s Hellen Obiri and Joyciline Jepkosgei as they came second in 2:15:53 and 2:15:55 respectively.
Mondo Duplantis improved his own world pole vault record by one centimetre at the Mondo Classic in Uppsala on 12 March.
USA’s Khaleb McRae broke the men’s world short track 400m record at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville on 13 February.
China’s Yan Ziyi produced the second-best women’s javelin performance in history at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Xiamen on 23 May.
The 18-year-old launched the javelin 71.74m in the opening round, adding almost six metres to the world U20 record of 65.89m that she set in Quzhou on 3 August 2025. Her throw also moved her behind only world record-holder Barbora Spotakova on the senior all-time list.