Records and firsts that are still up for grabs

PHOTOGRAPH: DAMIR SENCAR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Freediver Vitomir Maričić in training 1995, right, 

Mike Powell in 1991 and Gangkhar Puensum

28 Apr 2026 - The Guardian

Esther Addley

Bad news for anyone who secretly fancies themselves every time they lace up their trainers: the twohour marathon record has gone. Sabastian Sawe’s astonishing effort at the London marathon on Sunday – cruising across the finish line on the Mall in 1hr 59 mins and 30 secs like a man who has just jogged a parkrun – shattered a record that was long seen as beyond human capability.

“They said it couldn’t be done!” roared BBC commentator Steve Cram. And then, 11 seconds later, Yomif Kejelcha did it too – and he’d never even run a marathon before. The men’s two-hour marathon in race conditions has been comprehensively done. Find yourself a new challenge.

Happily, humans are not yet all-powerful and a few records and firsts – both athletic and otherwise – remain to be achieved. Here are a few to inspire your next challenge.

The first Pacific swim

Yes, some people actually see this as an achievable goal, and one person has even tried it, if one adopts an elastic definition that allows for taking the world’s biggest ocean in stages.

French swimmer Benoit Lecomte set off from Choshi in Japan in 2018 with a plan to swim 40 nautical miles a day until he hit San Francisco, resting at night onboard his support boat. He was forced to abandon after a mere 1,500 nautical miles, however, after the boat suffered irreparable damage.

Lecomte already claims a world first on swimming the Atlantic, after he crossed from Massachusetts to Brittany in northern France in 1998 (with a week off in the Azores half way through). Guinness World Records doesn’t recognise the attempt, however, due to uncertainty over the distance he swam. The first circumnavigation of Great Britain, on the other hand, has officially happened. (“It was brutal,” said 33-year-old Ross Edgley on finally coming ashore in Margate in 2018.)

The 9m long jump

Another near miss, American Mike Powell’s world record long jump of 8.95m (29.36ft) in 1991 has never been surpassed (though he jumped a wind-assisted 8.99m the following year at altitude).

His 35-year record is far from the longest to stand in athletics, however – Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 10.49s 100m and 21.34s 200m, both set in 1988m, are both unsurpassed, as are the women’s 400m and 800m records, set in 1985 and 1983 by Marita Koch from the former German Democratic Republic and Jarmila Kratochvílová from Czechoslovakia respectively.

Even Jonathan Edwards’s 18.29m triple jump has stood for more than 30 years (it was set in 1995), which he believes is because athletics has “not kept pace with the professionalism of sport”.

The 30-minute breath hold

Croat Vitomir Maričić got to 29 minutes 3 seconds in 2025, but the big 30, as probably no one calls it, has never been achieved.

Croatia, indeed, appears to be a centre of excellence for the sport, the record was previously held by his countryman Budimir Šobat, whose time of 24 minutes 37.36 seconds, was, noted Guinness World Records, longer than an episode of the Simpsons.

Perhaps encouragingly for late starters, Šobat didn’t take up freediving until the age of 48, and said his age helped him stay calm at critical moments. “Of course, you have to be a little bit mad,” he added.

The first ascent of Gangkhar Puensum

At 7,570 metres (24,836 ft), Gangkhar Puensum is actually a tiddler – only the 40th highest mountain on earth and more than a kilometre shorter than Everest. However, the highest mountain in Bhutan is also the highest unclimbed peak on earth, a status that would ordinarily send mountaineers clamouring for their crampons.

But for now at least, we can be confident the mountain whose name means “White Peak of the Three Spiritual Brothers” will remain unconquered. In 1994, Bhutan banned the climbing of all peaks over 6,000m, citing respect for local spiritual beliefs.

Sawe sets 1:58 target after historic London Marathon win

‘I want athletes to show we can be fast and clean’

Sabastian Sawe believes it is only a matter of time before he runs a marathon in one hour and 58 minutes after his superb sub-two hour performance in London on Sunday.

Sawe ran 1hr 59min 30sec to break the world record by 65sec and the 31-year-old Kenyan confirmed that he plans to race again in the autumn, although he has not decided where.

It will probably be in Berlin, which is a faster course than London, in September. When Sawe was asked whether he agreed with his coach, Claudio Berardelli, that 1:58 was possible in his next race, he smiled. “It’s only a matter of time. If you have good starting preparation for any race, then to achieve anything is possible.

“I started running back in primary school. But I mostly focus on studies first. But in my mind, I knew one day I will be a champion and it came true. Because finally, I’m a champion.”

Sawe said he had been so focused on racing Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha that he had no idea he was on course to run under two hours until near the finish.

“It was competitive, because Kejelcha was with me. We were patrolling each other. It wasn’t like, let’s see the time. I only realised I was running two hours when finishing the race. It was near the finish line when I saw the time and I was so excited and tried to push and I did it.

“For sure, racing with Yomif made a difference. What I did, it’s because of him. He tried his best and I tried my best. We pushed to our limits and we ran sub-two.”

Sawe conceded that while his legs were “a little bit sore” after his monumental effort, his head was clear because he turned down the chance to mark his achievement with a sponsor’s bottle of champagne.

“I didn’t drink anything to celebrate, just water,” said Sawe, who is teetotal. “I ate rice and a piece of chicken for dinner. It was very simple.”

Sawe was due to fly back to Nairobi on a Kenya Airways flight last night, but because of his world record went to Germany and the headquarters of his sponsors, Adidas, to celebrate.

Sawe thanked them for paying the Athletics Integrity Unit $50,000 a year to ensure he is drug tested more, which he hopes will make people trust his performances.

“We came up with this idea, and I really like it, because doping has become a cancer in my country,” he said. “And we said – from the management of my company, my coaches and also the whole group – we must get rid of doubts for individual results.

“The AIU agreed to start the process and everything goes well. I think it makes me feel comfortable in athletics, because no one’s doubting Sabastian Sawe. I would like my fellow athletes to follow me and to show the world that we can run fast and clean.”

The records continue to fall as it was confirmed the London Marathon had set an all-time best for the number of finishers in a marathon, with a total of 59,830 beating the 59,226 who completed the New York race in November 2025.

The event director, Hugh Brasher, said he was proud to have made sporting and marathon history, as he hailed Sawe’s performance. “It was just a historic day for the sport of athletics,” he said.

“It is absolutely one of the boundaries that a lot of people said they wouldn’t see in their lifetime. You try and put the greatest athletes together. You try to look after them. And you put that concoction together. And sometimes it just works.”

Brasher believes it was right to draw comparisons with Sawe’s subtwo hour marathon and Sir Roger Bannister’s four-minute mile, which his father, Chris, was part of, in 1954. “It’s just beautiful that 72 years on from Sir Roger Bannister and my dad pacemaking we had a day that makes me really proud of what the team have put together.

“I told them afterwards to open a bottle of champagne. Whatever you do, just remember it. Don’t let it pass you by. Because what the athletes have done is redefining the possible.”