\n<\/p>\n
Sawe’s parents drove six hours from their home to be there with his supporters when he landed.<\/p>\n
His Kenyan Airways plane was given a water cannon salute when it landed, as dancers and musicians performed.<\/p>\n
The homecoming was a huge moment for Sawe and his family, and also for the country.<\/p>\n
Speaking from the family home before going to the airport, Sawe’s father Simeon Sawe said: “He used to tell me that one day, he was going to break the record. He was so determined and hopeful that he would.<\/p>\n
“I am happy for him and all of us here. We celebrated so much, my throat still hurts from all the cheering,” he added.<\/p>\n
Sawe met Kenya’s President William Ruto on Thursday morning and was awarded two cheques worth 8m Kenya shillings ($62,000; \u00a346,000) for breaking the marathon record and getting a gold medal. He also received a vehicle number plate 01:59:30 – his official record time.<\/p>\n
Ruto described Sawe’s win as a “moment that is exceedingly rare” and not just a sporting triumph but “a defining moment in the history of human endurance”.<\/p>\n
“Sabastian, you have not only broken a record, you have expanded the horizon of human potential,” the president said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Sawe’s parents drove six hours from their home to be there with his supporters when he landed. His Kenyan Airways plane was given a water cannon salute when it landed, as dancers and musicians performed. The homecoming was a huge moment for Sawe and his family, and also for the country. Speaking from the family<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}