Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha Join the Adidas Walk of Fame

Sabastian Sawe and Yomif Kejelcha, who finished first and second in the fastest marathon ever run, were inducted into the Adidas Walk of Fame at the company’s headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, on Thursday. Adidas chief executive Bjørn Gulden hosted the pair, and both runners left their footprints at the site.

Sawe shared the moment with his followers on Instagram. “I never imagined that at any point in my career or in my life, I would one day be inducted into a Walk of Fame,” the Kenyan wrote. He said he felt humbled to be celebrated by the brand in front of Gulden and his staff, and that sharing the honor with Kejelcha made the day one he would remember. Kejelcha, writing on his own account, was just as warm: “I had a wonderful time with everyone and truly appreciate how this brand always treats me like family.”

The ceremony looked back to April 26 in London, where Sawe broke away from Kejelcha with about a mile to go and won in 1:59:30. Kejelcha came home 11 seconds later in 1:59:41, in what was only his first marathon, and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo finished third in 2:00:28. World Athletics has since ratified Sawe’s time as the world record, 65 seconds under the 2:00:35 Kelvin Kiptum ran in Chicago in 2023 and the first sub-two-hour marathon in a record-eligible race.

Both men, along with Tigst Assefa, who set a women-only world record of 2:15:41 in the same race, wore the Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, a 97-gram racer and the first Adidas running shoe to come in under 100 grams. The result lifted Adidas stock the following day, and just two days after the race all three athletes were in Herzogenaurach to meet Gulden and the shoe developers, as the Nürnberger Nachrichten reported at the time, so Thursday was a return trip for both men.

Sawe has not raced since London, and Berlin on Sunday was meant to be his first race as world record holder and the defense of the title he won there last year in 2:02:16, until he pulled out on Aug. 27 with an injury that neither he nor the organizers have described. “I look forward to seeing you again soon at the starting line in Berlin,” he wrote at the time.

Kejelcha has kept racing, and on Aug. 23 he ran 56:51 at the 21K de Buenos Aires to take back the half-marathon world record, bettering the 57:20 Kiplimo set in Lisbon in March, a mark that had itself replaced Kejelcha’s 57:30 from Valencia in 2024. The Buenos Aires time is still subject to ratification. His second marathon comes in Valencia on Dec. 6, where defending champion John Korir has said he wants to go under two hours himself.