This wasn’t a sprint to the tape to hit the two-hour mark. Sawe finished in 1:59:30, taking more than a minute off the world record of 2:00:35 set by the late Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago in 2023.

Mind-boggling fact #1: Sawe kept getting faster as the marathon went on. He ran the second half of the marathon in 59:01, the fastest second half in marathon history. He ran his 24th mile in 4:12, the fastest anybody has ever run that segment. He ran a 5k in 13:42 from kilometers 35-40, the fastest anybody has ever run that segment.There’s a great breakdown of even more stunning stats at Letsrun.com.

Mind-boggling fact #2: this was Kejelcha’s first-ever marathon, and it would’ve been the fastest ever if not for Sawe. He had primarily competed in distance track events, winning two silver medals in the 10k at World Championships. He now has the second-fastest marathon and the second-fastest half-marathon of all time.

The women’s record is a little confusing: Assefa’s 2:15:41 is the new fastest-ever time in a women’s-only race. The fastest-ever marathon by a woman was the 2:09:56 ran by Ruth Chepng'etich in Chicago in 2024, but she was racing with men on the course at the same time, allowing her to use male runners to set pace. World Athletics considers both runs to be world records.

It’s somewhat stunning that all these records fell in London, which is generally considered one of the more difficult major marathon courses. 15 of the last 16 men’s marathon world records came in Berlin, and the 16th came in Chicago, another favorable course. We’re probably going to see the record fall even more at other marathons.

There’s always public skepticism whenever records fall like this, but Adidas has been spending $50,000 a year so that Sawe can take dozens of additional tests to prove he isn’t doping.

The two-hour mark has been a when-not-if thing in recent decades. This 2011 BBC article features then-world record-holder Haile Gebrselassie speculating that the record would fall in 20-25 years (it was only 15), with a University of Montreal professor speculating that the record would fall around 2028. (Not bad!)

The fascination surrounding the two-hour barrier led to a pair of one-off events engineered to get Kenyan marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge under the two-hour barrier in 2017 and 2019. For the 2019 attempt — held on a flat course in Vienna, with pacesetters running in a flying V formation ahead of Kipchoge — Kipchoge ran a 1:59:40, but that was never regarded as a world record because of the unusual conditions.

In a way, the barrier is arbitrary. Runners have been lopping time off the marathon record for decades. If seconds were slightly longer or hours were slightly shorter, there wouldn’t be much of a difference between this world record and the last one. And it may not be too long before somebody breaks Sawe’s record, much in the same way someone broke Roger Bannister’s record just a few weeks after he ran the first four-minute mile.

But while people long predicted that this would happen eventually — could anybody have predicted the way it happened? For Sawe to smash the record by so much? For him to keep getting faster and faster and faster, on one of the world’s hardest courses? And for two people to break the record on the same day? It’s a race that will be remembered for decades, even if somebody else eventually goes faster.

The Jacksonville Jaguars had one of the most bizarre drafts of all time, deviating wildly from everybody else’s prospect valuations. Only two of the nine players they picked ranked among the top 257 prospects on the consensus big board. They drafted just one player above his value on the consensus board, and seven players who weren’t within 150 places of their rating. They used the 56th-overall pick on Nate Boerkircher, a tight end with 38 catches in five seasons of college ball, and used a sixth-round pick on C.J. Williams, a Stanford receiver ranked as the 82nd-best wide receiver on Dane Brugler’s board. Of course, it’s fine for teams to have their own ideas about which prospects are good, but “value” is the whole point of the draft. They probably could’ve snagged most of these players as free agents!

My favorite pick of the draft who may not ever play in the NFL: Uar Bernard, drafted 251st by the Eagles out of Nigeria, who was delightfully at the draft to hear his name called. (The Nigerian flag really goes well with the Eagles colors!) Bernard has never played football before, but he posted some of the most unbelievable athletic testing numbers of any draft prospect ever. He’s 6-foot-5 and 300 pounds, but has a 39-inch vertical leap and a 4.63-second 40-yard dash. An article in The Athletic compared him to Victor Wembanyama. If anybody can make it work, it’s the Eagles, who famously drafted Australian Jordan Mailata with no football experience and made him into one of the best offensive linemen in the NFL.

Congratulations to Georgia’s Oscar Delp on getting picked by the Saints in the third round. And congratulations to his big brown lab on getting a nice warm spot on the couch:

87 of the 257 picks came from SEC schools, smashing the all-time record of 80. 231 of 257 picks were from the Power Four conferences — 89.9 percent. Those numbers are an astonishing indication of how big conferences are consolidating talent. In 2022, 173 of 262 picks came from power conferences.

The 2025 NFL Draft was the first ever with no players selected from Division II or Division III. Now, it’s happened two years in a row. Why? Everybody’s transferring up.

None of the 257 draft picks were from Bill Belichick’s UNC, the school’s first year without a draft pick since 2016. I guess the whole “bringing in an NFL head coach who will be able to identify and develop NFL-quality players” thing did not go according to plan.

Setting the stage here: This is the National League, the fifth tier of English soccer, and the top tier of what’s called “non-league” football. The tiers above it are part of the English Football League and get trickle-down money from the Premier League; the tiers below it are mainly semi-pro and amateur. Only the league’s champion is guaranteed promotion, which improves club revenue by 10x.

Quicker summary: It’s the league Wrexham was in when they started doing the TV show.

The drama was set up last week. York appeared to have clinched the league with a win that set them four points clear of Rochdale … but Rochdale’s Emmanuel Dieseruvwe scored a 99th-minute winner in their second-to-last game of the year.

(BTW, just go ahead and click on all those links of goals to hear some very excited low-level British soccer announcers.)

There’s a clip of all the York City players watching the game on their phones, waiting to see if they’d won the league … and then walking away in disappointment. (Including one great “foookin ‘ell mate …” by one of the players.)

Rochdale’s win created an all-or-nothing match between Rochdale and York on the final day of the season. Think about the odds of that: There are 24 teams in the league. The draw is made before the season. What are the odds that the two teams on top of the table would play each other in this specific week?

(Seriously, what are the odds? I know they’re pretty slim but I’m bad at math. I’m thinking it’s 1/(24×23) right?)

The match was scoreless through 90 minutes — fine with York City, which had a two-point advantage. When the final whistle blew, they’d win the league inc ase of a tie.

But then Dieseruvwe scored in the 95th minute. Dale was headed up. Pandemonium ensued. Fans stormed the field.

The goal came in the fifth of six added minutes, but it took several minutes to clear all the celebrating Dale fans from the field. The game was extended because of the field-storming, and York’s players had time to emotionally regroup after the goal which surely ended their season

When the field was cleared, York came out in what I believe is a 10-0-0 formation, sprinting forwards for one last chance at saving the season.

In the 102nd minute, the ball got into the penalty area. York’s first shot on goal was saved. Their second shot on goal was saved. The ball was getting knocked around, both team’s hopes ricocheting back-and-forth with every touch. Eventually, York’s Josh Stones kicked a ball that barely crossed the line. In the last moment, in the last meter, York won promotion.

Everybody went bonkers.

Here’s the local BBC radio call. Highly recommended.

Rochdale’s manager is named Jimmy McNulty. I guess you could say their season came down to …

…

…

The Wire.

It’s not over for Rochdale, who can still earn promotion through a playoff system. But it all feels unfair — they were far ahead of third place in the table, but now have to win multiple games to prove they’re second-best in the league. Before the match, both teams released a joint statement asking for a third promotion spot in the National League in future seasons — unfortunately, they’ll need the teams in the tiers above them to agree to grant that spot.

Anyway, congratulations to York City — as a New Yorker, I feel like I’m bonded with them. I guess I’ve got a new League Two team to root for next year.