Sabastian Sawe’s Sub-Two Marathon Is Up for World Athletics’ First Moment of the Year

Sabastian Sawe’s 1:59:30 at the London Marathon, the first sub-two-hour marathon to count as a world record, is among 18 nominees for Moment of the Year, a new honor World Athletics opened to a fan vote on Monday. The winner will be named on stage at the World Athletics Awards in Monaco on Nov. 29, and voting runs through the governing body’s app until Oct. 26.

Two of the four road running nominees come from the same morning in London on April 26. Tigst Assefa won the women’s race in 2:15:41, a women-only world record, and Sawe later broke away from Yomif Kejelcha in the final mile to win the men’s race in a time World Athletics has since ratified as the world record. Kejelcha’s 1:59:41 that day, in his first marathon, did not make the list, but his 56:51 half-marathon in Buenos Aires in August did. That run took the world record back from Jacob Kiplimo and is still awaiting ratification, and the nomination is some consolation for an Ethiopian who was left off the World Athlete of the Year list two weeks ago.

The fourth is Agnes Ngetich, who ran 1:05:15 to win the world half-marathon title in Copenhagen on Sept. 20. She finished 50 seconds clear of the field and only one second inside the women-only record Peres Jepchirchir had held since the 2020 championships in Gdynia.

Josh Kerr’s 3:42.66 at the London Diamond League in July, which took the mile world record from Hicham El Guerrouj after 27 years, is one of four further nominations from the longer track events, putting eight of the 18 at 800m or beyond. Jakob Ingebrigtsen is on the list for his return from Achilles surgery, which ended with the European 5,000m title in Birmingham in August. Keely Hodgkinson’s 1:54.87 short track 800m world record in Liévin and Audrey Werro’s 1:53.70 over the same distance, which puts her No. 3 on the all-time list, make up the rest of that group.

Zurich accounts for three of the remaining nominees, through Alison dos Santos’s 45.80 world record in the 400m hurdles, Masai Russell’s 12.09 world record in the 100m hurdles and the pole vault contest Mondo Duplantis won at 6.25m over Emmanouil Karalis at 6.20m. Three more came at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, where Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won the sprint double, Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage threw 91.09m in the last round to take the javelin and Gianmarco Tamberi cleared 2.37m to win the high jump.

The fan vote decides only the shortlist, with finalists announced Nov. 3 and a World Athletics expert panel picking the winner from among them. That is a change from how the award was first presented: when the governing body set out its new awards format on May 29, it described Moment of the Year as “voted for entirely by fans via World Athletics social media channels.” Voting has since moved to the World Athletics app, launched ahead of the Ultimate Championship, where it sits under an Awards tab.

Sawe, Assefa and Ngetich are also among the 20 nominees for World Athlete of the Year, whose three men’s and three women’s finalists will be named Nov. 10 and 11. Both London winners are injured at the moment: Sawe has not raced since April and missed Berlin with a tibial stress fracture, while Assefa ruptured her Achilles tendon on the way to winning Berlin on Sept. 27 and had surgery the next day. Either of them could be collecting a trophy in Monaco well before they are back on a start line.

The 18 Nominees

1. Tigst Assefa: 2:15:41 women-only marathon world record, London
2. Botswana: men’s 4x400m win at home at the World Athletics Relays
3. Alison dos Santos: 45.80 400m hurdles world record, Zurich
4. Mondo Duplantis and Emmanouil Karalis: 6.25m to 6.20m pole vault contest, Zurich
5. Simon Ehammer: 6,670-point heptathlon world record for world indoor gold, Toruń
6. Keely Hodgkinson: 1:54.87 short track 800m world record, Liévin
7. Jakob Ingebrigtsen: European 5,000m title in his return from injury
8. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden: Ultimate Championship sprint double
9. Yomif Kejelcha: 56:51 half-marathon world record, Buenos Aires
10. Josh Kerr: 3:42.66 mile world record, London
11. Agnes Ngetich: 1:05:15 women-only half-marathon world record for world gold, Copenhagen
12. Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage: 91.09m with his final throw to win the javelin at the Ultimate Championship
13. Masai Russell: 12.09 100m hurdles world record, Zurich
14. Sabastian Sawe: 1:59:30 marathon world record, London
15. Gianmarco Tamberi: 2.37m world lead to win the Ultimate Championship high jump
16. Ja’Kobe Tharp: 12.75 110m hurdles world record, NCAA semifinals
17. Audrey Werro: 1:53.70 800m, No. 3 all-time
18. Yan Ziyi: 71.74m U20 javelin world record, No. 2 all-time