Who is Sabastian Sawe? from humble beginnings in Kenya to Adidas Hall of Fame

Kenyan marathon world record holder Sabastian Sawe has been inducted into the Adidas Hall of Fame, adding another major honour to a career that reached an unprecedented height when he became the first athlete to officially run a marathon in under two hours.

Sawe was inducted on Thursday, September 24, at Adidas' global headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, where he was honoured in the presence of Adidas chief executive Bjoern Gulden and members of the company's team.

He was inducted alongside Ethiopian distance runner Yomif Kejelcha, who finished second behind him in the historic 2026 London Marathon.

The recognition comes five months after Sawe produced a world-record performance, clocking 1:59:30 at the 2026 London Marathon to become the first man to run a sub-two-hour marathon in a record-eligible competitive race.

For Sawe, the honour has marked a remarkable transformation from a relatively little-known Kenyan distance runner into one of the most prominent names in world marathon running.

“I never imagined that at any point in my career or in my life, I would one day be inducted into a Hall of Fame. Today, I feel incredibly humbled and privileged to be celebrated by Adidas in such a unique way,” Sawe said in a statement following the induction.

Sawe was born in March 1995, in Barsombe, a village in Kenya's Rift Valley, and grew up in a modest family whose livelihood was connected to small-scale farming.

Accounts of his childhood describe a home with mud walls and no electricity, with Sawe raised largely by his grandmother while his father worked as a maize farmer.

His early life involved the kind of routine that is common in rural Kenya — walking or running to school and helping with farm work.

He later attended St Patrick's High School in Iten, one of Kenya's best-known athletics schools.

Unlike some Kenyan distance-running stars who emerged as teenagers, his breakthrough came relatively late.

He initially focused on middle-distance events before circumstances at an athletics meeting in 2019 unexpectedly pointed him towards longer races.

Sebastian arrived late for the meeting and found that the 5,000 metres was the race still available.

He entered, won and recorded 13:56, a performance that helped reveal his potential over longer distances.

The breakthrough eventually led Sawe towards the 2Running Club in Nandi County, where he trained under Italian coach Claudio Berardelli.

His development was not without setbacks as a tendon injury in 2020 interrupted his progress and forced him to spend a considerable period away from competition.

When he returned, however, his progression accelerated.

In 2022, Sawe made a major impression on the half-marathon circuit. He won the Seville Half Marathon in 59:02 after initially entering as a pacemaker and later recorded a 58:02 at the Roma-Ostia Half Marathon.

The athlete also established a Kenyan national record in the one-hour run in Brussels.

In 2023, Sebastian won the men's half-marathon title at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, further establishing himself among the world's leading road runners.

Sawe only made his full-marathon debut in 2024, winning the Valencia Marathon in 2:02:05.

His progression continued in 2025 when he won both the London Marathon and Berlin Marathon, establishing himself as one of the leading marathoners in the world.

At the London Marathon on April 26, 2026, Sawe lined up against a formidable field that included Ethiopia's Yomif Kejelcha and Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo.

Sawe crossed the finish line in 1:59:30, breaking the two-hour barrier in an official competitive marathon for the first time.

He also took 65 seconds off the previous world record of 2:00:35 set by the late Kenyan marathoner Kelvin Kiptum.

Kejelcha also went under two hours, finishing in 1:59:41, while Kiplimo recorded 2:00:28.

The performance also distinguished Sawe's achievement from Eliud Kipchoge's famous 1:59:40 run in Vienna in 2019, which was conducted under specially controlled conditions and was therefore not recognised as an official world record.

Sawe's historic London performance was achieved while wearing Adidas footwear, adding another dimension to his relationship with the German sportswear giant.

His subsequent induction into the Adidas Hall of Fame places the Kenyan among a select group of athletes associated with the brand.

He was inducted alongside Kejelcha, his closest challenger during the London Marathon, giving the latest honour an additional connection to the race that changed marathon history.

Despite the extraordinary high of 2026, Sawe's season has also been interrupted.

He was due to defend his Berlin Marathon title on September 27, but withdrew from the race in August because of an injury.

The Berlin Marathon organisers confirmed that the world record holder would not compete.

His agent later told LetsRun that the injury was a slight stress fracture in Sawe's right tibia and said the immediate priority was his recovery, with the possibility of returning to competition in 2027.