{"id":240742,"date":"2026-04-28T07:00:44","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/sabastian-sawes-sub-two-marathon-feat-is-the-roger-bannister-moment-of-our-time-sean-ingle\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T07:00:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T07:00:44","slug":"sabastian-sawes-sub-two-marathon-feat-is-the-roger-bannister-moment-of-our-time-sean-ingle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/28\/sabastian-sawes-sub-two-marathon-feat-is-the-roger-bannister-moment-of-our-time-sean-ingle\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabastian Sawe\u2019s sub-two marathon feat is the Roger Bannister moment of our time | Sean Ingle"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A<\/span> few years ago at the London Marathon<\/a>, organisers wheeled out an industrial-sized treadmill called the Tumbleator. Then they tempted curious onlookers with a simple question: can you keep up with Eliud Kipchoge? The answer was obvious. But that didn\u2019t stop people trying. Most lasted a few seconds before comically flying off the back into crash mats.<\/p>\n

The Tumbleator has a fresh poster-boy now: Sabastian Sawe, who on Sunday claimed track and field\u2019s last holy grail by running a sub two-hour marathon. Imagine sprinting 17 seconds for 100 metres, and then sustaining it across 26.2 miles. Or setting your treadmill at 4min 33sec per mile pace and carrying on for 1hr 59 min 30sec. It sounds ridiculous, impossible, laugh-out-loud stupid \u2026 until you realise that is what Sawe did in London<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Afterwards, in all the superlatives and search for perspective, the London Marathon\u2019s race director Hugh Brasher made an extraordinary suggestion. Sir Roger Bannister\u2019s four-minute mile<\/a> had been the greatest sporting moment of the 20th century, he told us. And, just maybe, we had witnessed its 21st-century equivalent.<\/p>\n

Your first instinct might be to flinch. But Brasher is not someone to be glibly dismissed. His father, Chris, paced Bannister to that famous 3:59.4 mile in May 1954, before setting up the first London Marathon with John Disley in 1981. Hugh also has a deep appreciation of the heritage of multiple sports.<\/p>\n

So is he right? My first instinct is to separate sporting moments \u2013 such as Rory McIlroy winning the Masters<\/a> for the first time \u2013 which are bound up with personality, atmosphere and expectation, and sporting feats, which are often against the clock.<\/p>\n

I have been fortunate to witness many great sporting moments in the flesh and sub-two is up there with Super Saturday at London 2012<\/a>, Novak Djokovic outlasting Roger Federer in the longest Wimbledon final<\/a>, Zinedine Zidane\u2019s head-butt<\/a> at the 2006 World Cup final and Usain Bolt at three Olympic Games. Just don\u2019t ask me to rank them.<\/p>\n