When Sabastian Sawe ran through Berlin’s Tiergarten early on Thursday morning he could have been forgiven for letting his mind wander.
The Kenyan was putting the finishing touches on his race preparations in the shadow of Brandenburg Gate, which he will run through on Sunday during the finishing stages of the BWM BERLIN-MARATHON where he is the headline act.
Winning a second Abbott World Marathon Major is the target but was the Kenyan thinking bigger as he dodged the Berlin joggers on that morning shake out?
That Sawe has top billing on Sunday is quite astonishing given he has only run two marathons.
He announced himself to the world in astonishing style in December when he ran 2:02:05 in his first ever marathon, blitzing the field to win in Valencia and put the world’s best on notice.
He then backed that up by winning the TCS London Marathon in April in 2:02:27 – the quickest time in the world this year.
There are whispers in Berlin that Sawe could go even quicker and do something really special on Sunday. Conditions are in his favour. The course is notoriously quick and the weather is set fair. Is Eliud Kipchoge’s course record of 2:01:09, which he ran in 2022, under threat?
Whatever the time, Sawe’s meteoric rise seems set to continue in the German capital where he is the overwhelming favourite to win his second Abbott World Marathon Major.
Victory would propel him to the top of the AbbottWMM Elite Series Leaderboard, which is currently topped by Alphonce Simbu, who won a thrilling World Championship last weekend.
Sawe’s main threat in Berlin is likely to come from defending champion Milkesa Mengesha. The Ethiopian ran a personal best of 2:03:17 to win here last year.
Gabriel Geay, who holds the Tanzanian national record with 2:03:00, should also be in the shake up.
Running royalty will also be in the field. Legend Kenenisa Bekele, who won in 2016 and 2019, will compete in this race for the fifth time.
In 2019 he clocked 2:01:41 and missed the world record at the Brandenburg Gate by just two seconds.
Might Sawe go under that on Sunday?
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