Sabastian Sawe of Kenya became the first person to break the 2-hour barrier in an official marathon on Sunday.
Sawe smashed the men’s world record by 65 seconds in winning the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds.
Here’s a list of other notable milestones in world athletics and where the records stand now:
100 meters
U.S. sprinter Jim Hines became the first man to officially break the 10-second barrier in the 100 meters in 1968.
The current world record in the 100 belongs to Usain Bolt, whose time of 9.58 seconds came in 2009.
200 meters
American runner Tommie Smith was the first man to break 20 seconds in 1968, with a time of 19.83 seconds.
Bolt has the current record with 19.19 seconds, also from 2009.
In between, Michael Johnson ran 19.32 at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Noah Lyles ran 19.31 in 2022 to take the iconic U.S. record from Johnson.
400 meters
Czech runner Jarmila Kratochvilova became the first woman to break 48 seconds in the 400 meters (47.99) in 1983. Two years later, East Germany’s Marita Koch bettered that with a run of 47.60 that is still the world record.
Last year, America’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone became the first woman since the Eastern Bloc era to crack 48 when she ran 47.78 at world championships.
McLaughlin-Levrone, who has lowered the record in the 400 hurdles by more than 2 seconds to 50.37 since 2021, has put the 50-second mark in that event in her sights.
Mile
Britain’s Roger Bannister became the first person to run the mile in under four minutes in 1954.
The then-Oxford University medical student overtook the second of his pacemakers on the final lap of the race on Oxford’s Iffley Road track to finish in 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.
Since then, more than 1,000 athletes have run the mile in under four minutes, according to World Athletics. The current record dates to 1999: 3:43.13 by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj.
Long jump
One of the most amazing world records in track and field history came in 1968, when Bob Beamon jumped 8.90 meters (29 feet, 2 1/4 inches) at the Mexico City Olympics.
That mark has been broken once — in 1991 by Mike Powell, whose jump of 8.95 meters (29 feet, 4 1/4 inches) is among the oldest in the athletics record book.
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