Yomif Kejelcha broke the 2-hour marathon but got 2nd place. He's still happy
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Alex Davidson/Getty Images Europe
After Yomif Kejelcha crossed the finish line at the London Marathon on Sunday, he was shocked by what he'd accomplished.
Kejelcha, 28, ran a 1:59:41, crushing the elusive two-hour marathon goal. Athletes have been striving to break through that barrier for years. To make the story even sweeter, Kejelcha beat it in his first-ever competitive marathon.
"This is so crazy," he told NPR in an interview on Tuesday from Frankfurt, Germany, where he was still stunned by the accomplishment. "It's too hard to believe… I don't have words for it really."
Before the race, Kejelcha said in an interview that it was "not possible" for him to beat two-hours in his first marathon. He even proved himself wrong.
But, here comes the twist.
Kejelcha finished 11 seconds after Kenya's Sabastian Sawe. Sawe was hailed as the first man to run an official marathon in under two hours. Kejelcha accepted the title of second-fastest.
"I'm not upset," he told NPR. "I'm not angry. I'm very, very happy because I broke two hours."
"It's… an 11 second difference, so I think it's not too far for me to break again," Kejelcha continued.
He and Sawe have a "friendly competition," he said, and he does consider the fastest marathon runner a close friend.
Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo also beat the previous world record set by the late Kenyan, Kelvin Kiptum, in Chicago in 2023, but he placed third with a time of 2:00:28.
If it was a normal year, Kejelcha or Kiplimo's time would have been extraordinary headlines. But this year was anything but normal.
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