Sabastian Sawe: The rising king of marathon

At the halfway point, Sawe’s time registered 60 minutes and 16 seconds. If he were to keep that pace, he was bound to finish three seconds inside Kiptum’s record. 

Could this be the day! Sawe looked comfortable and capable.

In fact, people in his camp who understood his running must have felt their man was on to something.

Sawe has confessed that he enjoys the second half of a marathon race, which normally is the toughest, but that is where he always likes to make surges that have typically given him his victories. 

But as they say, as unpredictable as the weather. Temperatures, expected to be low at this time of the year, were rising, and by the halfway mark, it was a hot 25 degrees Celsius.

The rise in temperature also seemed to affect Sawe’s pacesetters, the last one dropping off at the 23km mark, much earlier than planned.

Defending champion, Milkesa Mengesha of Ethiopia, too, could not sustain the brutal pace and dropped out, leaving Sawe to run the remaining 19 kilometres alone.

His pace went down, and the world record slowly slipped past.

But at the 30km mark, he was fast enough to be on target to break the course record of 2:01:09, set by Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya in 2022. His time of 1:26:06 illustrated his strength and form.

Still, it was asking too much from the lone warrior on the road as the elements worked against him and by the 35km, the course record had slipped away as he registered a time of 1:40:50.

Sawe eventually crossed the finish line in a fast time of 2:02:16 to triumph in the 51st edition of this Abbott World Majors Marathon.

That time made him the fastest marathoner this year, and ranked as the fourth fastest time in the streets of the German capital.

Read: Kenya's Sawe storms to victory in London Marathon

It also made him the third fastest man to have run in Berlin after, of course, Kipchoge and Ethiopia’s legend, Kenenisa Bekel,e who ran 2:01:41 in 2019.

Catching up with Sawe in Nairobi this week, he revealed that his target was to lower the course record while also looking to best his personal best time of 2:02:05. 

"From 25km I could feel my body was weakening, the heat was getting the better of me so I had to slow the pace a bit but I really wanted to give it my all, to run as fast as I could. Nonetheless, I must say I'm very happy with the results, although it wasn't a day for the record,” said Sawe.

The new champ launched his marathon career at the Valencia Marathon last year with a stupendous winning time of 2:02:05 that made him the fifth fastest human being over the distance after Kiptum, Kipchoge, Bekele and Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia.

His second marathon race was in April at the London Marathon, where he clocked a world lead time of 2:07:27 on his way to victory.

He believes that the marathon race has taken another twist as the younger generation takes over from the old guard.

“If you look at the world ranking now, there are many athletes who have been winning marathons in 2:02 hours, and that means the race is changing. I must pay tribute to the world record holder, Kelvin Kiptum, who showed us how with his two-hour effort.

How did Sawe become one of the fastest marathon runners?

He was born 29 years ago in Barsombe, Uasin Gishu. He attended Ndonyongaria Primary School up to Standard Two before he went to live with his grandparents and was transferred to Barsombe Primary School.

“I stayed with my grandparents during my school time and they always encouraged me to work hard and despite having lost my grandmother Esther Sitienei in 2022, she guided me and always told me to go for nothing but the best,” he said.

He showed promise in athletics while in primary school, but curiously did not engage in that sport in secondary school at Leseru High School in Uasin Gishu.

“One couldn’t engage anywhere because the school was interested in just academics,” he explains.

But he started training in the village after sitting his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations in 2015.

Sawe initially trained and raced in 800m and 1,500m.

Kenyan national record

“But getting selected into the Kenyan team was very difficult and the competition was tough,” he says.

He made a decision to move to road races in 2017.

However, nothing seemed to be working for him until he met his current coach, Claudio Berardelli.

The Italian coach has produced some of the best middle and long distance runners, including the Olympics and Worlds 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, former London Marathon champion Amos Kipruto, former Boston and New York Marathon champion Evans Chebet and Olympics marathon bronze medallist Benson Kipruto.

Sawe joined Claudio in September 2020 after shifting his training base from Iten in Elgeyo Marakwet to Kapsabet in Nandi.

“My uncle Abraham Chepkirwok, who used to compete for Uganda in the 800m met with coach Abel Mutai, who was his training partner during their running days, and he asked him if I could join the camp in Kapsabet and Mutai agreed. So, I joined the 2Running Athletics Club where I’m based to date,” said the father of three boys. 

His stars started aligning.

In September 2022, Sawe set a Kenyan national record in the one-hour run at the Memorial Van Damme with a distance of 21,250m, missing Mo Farah’s world record mark of 21,330m set in 2020 in Brussels.

He would later set a course record at the Rome-Ostia Half Marathon with a time of 58:02 in March 2022 before clocking 58:58 at the Bahrain Royal Night Half Marathon the same year.

He won half-marathon gold for Kenya at the 2023 World Road Running Championships in Riga before winning the 2024 Copenhagen Half Marathon in a personal best time of 58:05, which places him as the ninth fastest in the all-time best list.

He admits that since he joined the camp in Kapsabet, his career has been growing steadily, and he believes the best is yet to come from him.

He is keen to represent Kenya at the global stage, at the World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games and grab titles.

Read: London Marathon: All eyes on rising star Sawe in star-studded field

“I have just started my marathon journey and I still have a long way to go and that translates to representing Kenya at the global stages is still possible. I have done it before when I bagged a gold medal at the World Road Running Championships in Half Marathon and I will also do it in marathon races,” he added.

He represented Kenya at the 2024 World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, finishing seventh as the country’s men’s team won the overall title.

So, what is his training secret?

“I normally run an average of 200km a week while preparing for a marathon

“My day starts at around 6 am, and it depends on the day because we normally have different programmes and end the day at around 9 pm to 10 pm. My resting day is Sunday,” is all he can offer.

What about diet?

“I love eating rice and beans, potatoes, vegetables served with ugali not forgetting managu and milk.”

His personal best of 26.49 in 10km and 27:09.46 in 10,000m are a testament to his running power.

Of course, Kenyan runners have been on the radar because of the numerous positive doping tests in the country.

Following Sawe’s wins in Valencia last year and London this year, his camp proposed to the sport's anti-doping agency, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), to undergo special anti-doping tests to help dispel any doubts about the honesty of his performance.

The AIU suggested that a higher frequency of testing was required, and therefore it was agreed that Sawe undergo at least 25 anti-doping controls in the two months leading up to the Berlin Marathon, with these tests subject to the most rigorous laboratory analysis available.

Sawe thanks his coach Claudio and his training mates for the team spirit they have always displayed while preparing for races.

“We live as a family and we have always trained together as brothers.”

Sawe is leading in the Abbott Marathon Majors standings with 50 points, followed by Alphonse Simbu with 41 points and Ethiopia's Hailemaryam Kiroson with 25 points.