Sabastian Sawe will leave London with $355,000 in prize money after becoming the first runner to break the two-hour barrier in a competitive marathon on Sunday. His total earnings from sponsor and contractual bonuses across the year are expected to climb past $1 million.
The 1:59:30 finish on The Mall triggered a stack of bonuses the London Marathon had on the table for exactly this kind of performance, and Sawe collected nearly all of them.
Photo: Andrew Baker for London Marathon Events
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How the $355,000 breaks down
Sawe’s cheque came from four separate pots:
- $55,000 for winning the elite men’s race
- $150,000 for finishing under 2:02:00
- $125,000 for breaking the world record
- $25,000 for breaking the London course record
The runner-up takes $30,000, third place gets $22,500, and the prize pot scales down to $1,000 for finishing 12th.
Time bonuses are tiered. A men’s elite finish under 2:02:00 earns the top $150,000, with smaller bonuses at 2:03:00 ($100,000), 2:03:30 ($75,000) and 2:04:00 ($50,000). Yomif Kejelcha, second in 1:59:41 on his marathon debut, clears the top tier. Jacob Kiplimo’s 2:00:28 in third also comes in under 2:02:00. All three men on the podium pick up the maximum time bonus.
Photo: Bob Martin for London Marathon Events
For further information: media@londonmarathonevents.co.uk
Why the total could top $1 million
The $355,000 is just London’s own payout. Sawe’s contract with his shoe sponsor, plus appearance fees and performance bonuses tied to a world record, are expected to take his year-end earnings past $1 million.
He ran in the new Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, which weighs under 100 grams. The Wall Street Journal likened the shoe to the weight of a newborn kitten. It carries a £450 retail price and goes on public sale next month. A sub-two run in the shoe’s launch month is the kind of marketing moment that tends to come with a bonus clause attached.
Photo: David Cliff for London Marathon Events
For further information: media@londonmarathonevents.co.uk
The race itself
Sawe and Kejelcha both finished under the previous world record of 2:00:35, set by the late Kelvin Kiptum at Chicago in October 2023. Kiplimo also bettered the old mark. Three men under the old record on the same day is a first.
Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40 in Vienna in 2019, but that effort happened under controlled conditions with rotating pacers and was never ratified. Sunday’s race ran on the standard London course alongside roughly 59,000 other runners. Sawe arrived in London fitter than he had been ahead of Berlin, and the data backed it up before the gun even went.
Photo: Bob Martin for London Marathon Events
For further information: media@londonmarathonevents.co.uk
A second pay-out for Assefa
The women’s race produced a second world record and a second six-figure cheque. Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa improved her own world mark with 2:15:41, holding off Hellen Obiri and Joyciline Jepkosgei in a close finish.
Assefa pockets the same combination Sawe did: $55,000 for winning, $150,000 for finishing under 2:15:00, $125,000 for the world record and $25,000 for the course record. Her London earnings land in the same range as Sawe’s, which means the marathon paid out more than $700,000 in record bonuses on a single Sunday.
