The Kenyan became the first person to run a sub-two hour marathon in race conditions in London.

Sabastian Sawe, who ran a world record of 1:59:30 to win last month's London Marathon, will defend his title in Berlin (September 27).

In a record-breaking race in the British capital, Sawe became the first person to run a sub-two hour marathon on a legal course.

Such was the strength in depth in the men's field that Yomif Kejelcha (1:59:41) and Jacob Kiplimo (2:00:28) both went under the late Kevlin Kiptum's previous world record of 2:00:35.

Sawe returns to Berlin off the back of his 2:02:16 victory last year, recorded in hotter than usual conditions with temperatures reaching up to 25C.

"After my victory ​in London and my sub-two-hour performance, I can only say ​that I will - as always - prepare as well as possible, come to Berlin to honour this great event and the organisation that invited ​me, and aim to run as well and as ​fast as I can," he said.

Berlin is regarded as one of the quickest marathons in the world, with eight consecutive world records – from Paul Tergat's 2:04:55 to Eliud Kipchoge's 2:01:09 – set between 2003 and 2019.

Kipchoge's 2:01:39 from 2018 and Kenenisa Bekele's 2:01:41 from 2019 – both set in Berlin – are also the joint-seventh and ninth quickest marks in history.

Sawe will be hoping to get near his world record of 1:59:30 in the German capital and continue his 100% record in marathons.

The Kenyan ran his first marathon in Valencia two years ago and won in 2:02:05, which was the second fastest debut over 26.2 miles after Kiptum's 2:01:53 (Valencia 2022).

Sawe followed that up with victories in London (2:02:27) and Berlin (2:02:16) last year, before his sub-two hour mark last month.

After going through half-way in 60:29, Sawe produced a much quicker second half of 59:01 and ran splits of 13:54 and 13:42 for his final two 5km segments.

During his run in London, Sawe wore the new Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3, reputed to be as light as a banana and the first shoe to weight under 100g (97g).