Sabastian Sawe Withdraws from the 2026 Berlin Marathon

Sabastian Sawe, the first man to run a marathon under two hours, has withdrawn from the Berlin Marathon with an injury, a month before the Sept. 27 race. It was to be his first since he ran 1:59:30 in London in April, setting a new world record and becoming the first marathoner to break the two-hour barrier on a sanctioned course.

SCC Events, which organizes the race, announced the withdrawal on Thursday (Aug. 27), but provided no additional medical details.

In the statement issued by the organizers and later posted on his Instagram account, Sawe said it was “with a heavy heart” that he was pulling out, and that he had been looking forward “to achieving something special on the streets of Berlin and crossing the finish line at the Brandenburg Gate.”

Race director Mark Milde said the race regretted the absence and wished Sawe a full recovery. No headlining replacement was named.

Sawe, 31, has won every marathon he has entered: Valencia in 2024 in 2:02:05, London in April 2025 in 2:02:27, Berlin last September in 2:02:16, and London again on April 26 this year, where his 1:59:30 took 65 seconds off Kelvin Kiptum’s 2:00:35 and became the first sub-two-hour marathon run in a record-eligible race. Yomif Kejelcha finished 11 seconds behind him that morning. Sawe committed to his Berlin title defence in May.

The Injury Sawe Raced On Last Year

Although Sawe hasn’t disclosed the specifics of what has forced him to withdraw from Berlin, he admitted after his world record in London that he’d battled multiple injuries throughout 2025.

LetsRun’s Jonathan Gault reported in April that Sawe struck a rail with his foot during a track session in the buildup to last year’s Berlin Marathon and sustained a stress fracture in a metatarsal. He ran Berlin on it and won. The pain returned in autumn training, and an MRI confirmed the fracture. A back problem in December also cost him roughly 10 days of running.

His coach, Claudio Berardelli, told LetsRun that “all of January was a kind of return to a normal capacity of running and then from February things started to come back to normal.” Sawe’s biggest week before London reached 150 miles (241 kilometers). He hasn’t given any indication that this injury is related to these previous issues.

What the Men’s Race Loses

Berlin’s course produced eight consecutive men’s world records between 2003 and 2022, and Eliud Kipchoge’s 2:01:09 from 2022 is still the course record. The record has since shifted to two different World Marathon Majors: Kiptum in Chicago in 2023 and then Sawe in London this year. Sawe’s entry would have put the fastest marathoner in history back on the course where most of the distance’s fastest times have been historically set.

Now, the men’s headliners on paper are Gabriel Geay of Tanzania and Guye Adola of Ethiopia, at 2:03:00 and 2:03:46. Adola won in Berlin in 2021 in 2:05:45.

Assefa Now Leads the Field

The strongest record attempt in Berlin is now in the women’s race. Tigst Assefa, who ran 2:11:53 in Berlin in 2023 and holds the women’s-only world record of 2:15:41 from London in 2025, says she will go after the world record again. That mark is Ruth Chepng’etich’s 2:09:56 from Chicago in 2024, and it stands despite the three-year doping ban the Athletics Integrity Unit imposed on her in October 2025 for testing positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. The ban was backdated to March 14, 2025, although every result before that date was left in place.

Sawe has not said when he will race next. In his statement he said he looks forward “to seeing you again soon at the starting line in Berlin.” Read his full statement, via his Instagram page, below:

It is with a heavy heart that I must inform you that I am forced to withdraw from @berlinmarathon due to injury.

I had been looking forward to achieving something special on the streets of Berlin and crossing the finish line at the Brandenburg Gate. It was also my wish to give something back to the race and its organizers, who have supported me so much.

I want to thank my fans and everyone who continues to support me, and I wish all the runners taking part a great race. I hope they can enjoy the moment, trust the work they have done and be proud of what they achieve in Berlin.

I look forward to seeing you again soon at the starting line in Berlin.