Sabastian Sawe’s road to success

The story of how a coach from Scotland helped set Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe on a path toward the top of the marathon world

It’s the kind of moment that makes it all worthwhile and can keep a coach motivated for months. Colin Thomas was stood on the roadside behind a barrier, roughly 6km from the finish line of the London Marathon, and on the lookout for some familiar faces. He was there to support some of the athletes he mentors, as well as friends who were taking to the streets to raise money for charity. But one particular participant that the Scot has worked with was putting together the run of his life.

As he peered down the road for signs of the oncoming elite field, Thomas was frustratingly short of information. He had seen Sabastian Sawe positioned within the lead group at the halfway mark but, with the tracking app not working as quickly as he would like, he was completely unaware of the bold and decisive move the Kenyan had made at 30km.

As the other members of the group had reached for their water bottles, Sawe opted to downshift and hit the accelerator, rapidly establishing a sizeable lead as his illustrious rivals struggled to react.

By the time he was about to come flying past Thomas, that lead had grown and the 30-year-old was closing in on the biggest win of his career, following up his victorious marathon debut in Valencia last December with a run of 2:02:27 that is the second-quickest ever recorded over the London course.

“When he came past, I was screaming at him,” says Thomas. “Then I was waiting to see who was coming next and, of course, by that point, he was nearly a minute ahead.

“Then [Jacob] Kilpimo came past and he’s a class runner with a really fast finish so I was thinking: ‘Hopefully, Sabastian can hang on and go for the win’. I was still trying to refresh the app and, eventually, I found out he’d won. I was so happy for him.”

Thomas’ mind began drifting back to the first time he had met Sawe, in Kenya, in 2018.

“I’ve been going to Kenya regularly since 2015 and working with a coach called John Ewoi,” he continues. “He’s an ex-professional athlete and I started working alongside him with some groups of young, up and coming athletes.

“In 2018, before I was going out there, John contacted me and said: ‘I’ve hand-picked some young athletes who I think are really, really great’. Sabastian was part of that group.”

However, they were short of resources…