Sebastian Sawe Wins Valencia Marathon On Debut, Becoming Fifth-Fastest Of All Time

Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe ran the second-fastest debut marathon to win the 2024 Valencia Marathon. His time of 2:02:05 made him the fifth-fastest men’s marathoner of all time. 

The 29-year-old Kenyan and 58:05 half marathoner, had won seven of his nine half marathon performances ahead of his marathon debut, and the only two half marathons he hadn’t won were in Valencia. He more than made up for those performances by running what will almost certainly be the fastest marathon in 2024.

In ideal running conditions, the pacemakers had been tasked with going through halfway in 61 minutes, but were just off that as they hit 13.1 miles in 1:01:18.

With a tight pack of runners still together, including Ethiopians Keninisa Bekele and Sisay Lemma, respectively the third- and fourth-fastest men of all time, it was hard to know what would come next: had they gone too fast, or were there some runners ready to take on the race. 

Kenya’s Daniel Matieko made the move at 30km and broke apart the pack. But the move ended up breaking him, and as he dropped back, Sawe ran straight past him into what became an unassailable lead, with only Ethiopia’s Deresa Galeta able to go with him. 

Sawe was just 12 seconds outside of Kelvin Kiptum’s marathon debut record of 2:01:53 (run at the Valencia Marathon in 2022), and 17 seconds outside of Sisay Lemma’s Valencia Marathon course record of 2:01:48 set in 2023. 

Galeta, winner of the 2024 Seville Marathon, finished second in 2:02:38, becoming the seventh-fastest male marathoner, and the 11th fastest marathon ever run. Matieko was able to hang on for third in 2:04:24.

In total, 10 men finished in under 2:05 for the first time in marathon history, 16 men ran the world championship qualifying time of 2:06:30, and 24 men ran under 2:08. There were new men’s national records for Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Israel, Australia, Uruguay, and new women’s national records for Uganda and Hungary (and likely more to be confirmed).

The women’s race also set out looking to challenge the course record of 2:14:58, but no one was able to keep up with that pace. The winner was Ethiopia’s Megertu Alemu in 2:16:49, ahead of Uganda’s Stella Chesang in 2:18:26 (a new national record) and Ethiopia’s Tiruye Mesfin in 2:18:35. 

This year’s Valencia Marathon is expected to be the biggest in the race’s history, with around 35,000 starters. The race organisers have promised a €3 donation on behalf of every finisher to the relief effort of the recent flooding which devastated the surrounding area. 

The Valencia Marathon continues to be the fastest marathon in the world in terms of the depth of runners. In 2024, over 500 runners finished under 2:30, and over 5,000 finished under 3:00. And now six of the top 20 fastest men’s marathons of all time have been run in Valencia. Only Berlin, also with six, can match Valencia for fast times.

As the year comes to an end, 2024 has been a fast year for the marathon, with four men running themselves into the top 10 of all time: Benson Kipruto, John Korir, Deresa Galeta and Sebastian Sawe, who will have run the fastest marathon in 2024. This was also the year where we saw the incredible new women’s world record by Ruth Chepengetich.

The headlines are for Sebastian Sawe in the City of Running as he became the fifth-fastest man ever to run a marathon, doing so in his debut over 26.2 miles. Two years ago, Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum ran his marathon debut in Valencia, just a few seconds faster than Sawe, and he went on to run 2:00:35. Is Sawe the next big name to watch in the men’s marathon?

Photo from Valencia Marathon