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Yomif Kejelcha broke the 2-hour marathon but got 2nd place. He’s still happy

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Yomif Kejelcha broke the 2-hour marathon but got 2nd place. He’s still happy

Yomif Kejelcha of Team Ethiopia crosses the line and finishes second during the Men’s 2026 TCS London Marathon on April 26, 2026 in London, England.

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After Yomif Kejelcha crossed the finish line at the London Marathon on Sunday, he was shocked by what he’d accomplished.

Kejelcha, 28, ran a 1:59:41, crushing the elusive two-hour marathon goal. Athletes have been striving to break through that barrier for years. To make the story even sweeter, Kejelcha beat it in his first-ever competitive marathon.

“This is so crazy,” he told NPR in an interview on Tuesday from Frankfurt, Germany, where he was still stunned by the accomplishment. “It’s too hard to believe… I don’t have words for it really.”

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Before the race, Kejelcha said in an interview that it was “not possible” for him to beat two-hours in his first marathon. He even proved himself wrong.

But, here comes the twist.

Kejelcha finished 11 seconds after Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe. Sawe was hailed as the first man to run an official marathon in under two hours. Kejelcha accepted the title of second-fastest.

“I’m not upset,” he told NPR. “I’m not angry. I’m very, very happy because I broke two hours.”

“It’s… an 11 second difference, so I think it’s not too far for me to break again,” Kejelcha continued.

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He and Sawe have a “friendly competition,” he said, and he does consider the fastest marathon runner a close friend.

Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo also beat the previous world record set by the late Kenyan, Kelvin Kiptum, in Chicago in 2023, but he placed third with a time of 2:00:28.

If it was a normal year, Kejelcha or Kiplimo’s time would have been extraordinary headlines. But this year was anything but normal.

Of course, this is not Kejelcha’s first competitive race. He is a versatile runner and a track and road specialist. He set the world indoor mile record in 2019, broke the half-marathon world record in Valencia in 2024, and received a silver medal in the 10,000 meters at last year’s world championships in Tokyo.

Regardless of what may seem to some as an inconceivable loss, Kejelcha said he was feeling “great.”

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“To beat two hours, it’s not easy,” he said, and “every athlete who does a marathon” strives to achieve it.

Ahead of the race, Kejelcha told reporters that he was going to run in the first group, but by no means did he think that meant running the race in under two hours.

Sometimes, a “special thing” happens in races, he said, but Kejelcha decided to be more reasonable with himself, guessing he would finish at 2:03 or 2:02.

He’d been dreaming of the London Marathon for a long time. His coach finally agreed to give him a shot in 2026, Kejelcha said.

“My training is really great, as far as tomorrow, I don’t know what [is going to] happen,” Kejelcha remembers thinking to himself.

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Throughout the race, Kejelcha said “100%” he and Sawe pushed each other. The runners ran side by side and they dropped Kiplimo between 18 and 21 miles. But with one mile remaining, Sawe took a commanding lead. Sawe’s finish time shaved 65 seconds off the previous world record.

Kejelcha said after 25 miles he lost his pace, and he didn’t think he was going to make it.

But close to the finish line, he looked down at his watch and saw he was significantly under two hours. Only then did he think it was possible to do the “impossible.”

After the race, he told Sawe congratulations.

1st placed Sabastian Sawe of Team Kenya (C), 2nd placed Yomif Kejelcha of Team Ethiopia (L) and 3rd placed Jacob Kiplimo of Team Uganda (R) pose for a photo after the Men’s 2026 TCS London Marathon on April 26, 2026 in London, England.

1st placed Sabastian Sawe of Team Kenya (C), 2nd placed Yomif Kejelcha of Team Ethiopia (L) and 3rd placed Jacob Kiplimo of Team Uganda (R) pose for a photo after the Men’s 2026 TCS London Marathon on April 26, 2026 in London, England.

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Still, he “of course” wants to beat his own record and then Sawe’s record. His next marathon will be 1:58, he hopes.

“It’s competition… I need to beat it,” he said.

Kejelcha said he and Sawe set a “big example” to fuel the next cohort of runners. He believes more athletes will beat the sub-two hour mark very soon.

“I ran my first (competitive) marathon in under two hours, so I think it’s an inspiration for young athletes,” he said.

Along with sheer willpower, Kejelcha said a few things pushed him to the unfathomable record-breaking pace.

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First, the adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 shoes, which weigh barely more than a deck of cards. Kejelcha hailed them as “magical shoes.” He said they felt so light he didn’t even realize he was wearing them.

Second, his coaches, who believed in him even though he didn’t believe in himself.

Now, “I believe in myself,” Kejelcha said. It only took running one of the most coveted marathon times in history.

Third, his 6-month preparation at his training ground in the capital city of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, which boasts a high altitude, along with the “amazing weather” at the London Marathon on Sunday.

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And finally, his wife’s cooking. (She helps him stick to his specific food program, he said)

Really, Kejelcha said, as much as people want to believe it, there’s no special sauce.

“I don’t have anything, it’s just hard work. Athletes always need discipline.”

Kejelcha said he doesn’t yet have a plan for his next race. But the half marathon is still his favorite run, despite finding it much harder than a full marathon.

“The marathon is much easier than the… half marathon,” he said, laughing.

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Coming in second is not as maddening as the internet has suggested it would be for Kejechla. He still walked away with the title of fastest-ever marathon debut, and he certainly does not feel upset about anything.

“I am very happy,” Kejelcha said.

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One Person Who Appears to Be Missing From King Charles’s U.S. Itinerary: Prince Harry

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One Person Who Appears to Be Missing From King Charles’s U.S. Itinerary: Prince Harry

One meeting that appears to be absent from King Charles III’s carefully planned schedule in the United States this week is any reunion with Prince Harry.

On a four-day state visit intended in part to repair bruised U.S.-British relations, Charles’s itinerary currently includes no plans to see Harry, his 41-year-old son, who lives in California with his wife, Meghan, and their two children.

Buckingham Palace officials declined to comment when asked whether the king and his younger son would meet. Charles and Queen Camilla are scheduled to be in Washington on Tuesday and New York on Wednesday before departing on Thursday.

The family fell out publicly when Harry, who holds the title Duke of Sussex, withdrew from royal duties in 2020 and relocated to California in an act of self-exile. In the years since, their relationship has been tested again and again.

Harry wrote a tell-all memoir about growing up in the royal family and produced a six-part Netflix series about his relationship with Meghan, which detailed his rift with his brother, Prince William, with whom he remains estranged. And he pursued a lawsuit challenging the decision by British authorities to withdraw his family’s publicly-financed security protection during their visits to Britain.

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In an interview last May, Harry told the BBC that the lawsuit — which he lost — had become a “sticking point,” further distancing him from his father. He expressed concern for the king’s health, following his father’s diagnosis with an undisclosed form of cancer the year before.

“I would love reconciliation with my family,” Harry said in that interview.

Last September, Charles and Harry met for the first time in 19 months, an encounter that some hoped represented a rapprochement. The BBC reported that they spent around an hour together, having tea privately in Clarence House, the king’s London residence.

In the months since, the rift has been overshadowed by another, more damaging family scandal. The king’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested amid allegations that he had shared confidential government information with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew, whose royal titles were previously stripped over his ties to Mr. Epstein, has denied wrongdoing.

Andrew’s withdrawal from royal life has contributed to an image of a shrunken and fractured royal family. Speaking days after Andrew’s arrest with Britain’s Channel 4 News, Harry did not directly address the subject of his uncle but acknowledged, with an awkward chuckle, that there had been “a lot of stuff in the news.”

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Feds conducting raids connected to welfare fraud investigation in Minnesota

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Feds conducting raids connected to welfare fraud investigation in Minnesota

Federal law enforcement agencies are conducting a series of raids connected to the Somali fraud investigation in Minnesota on Tuesday morning, federal authorities have said.

The raids are not part of an immigration enforcement operation.

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“Today the FBI with federal, state and local law enforcement is involved in court-authorized law enforcement activity as part of an ongoing fraud investigation,” a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said.

At least 22 federal search warrants were executed in Minnesota on Tuesday morning, a senior Justice Department official told NBC News. It was not immediately clear how many total raids occurred.

At least one of the raids appears to be at the Somali Senior Center and Adult Day Services facility, as federal law enforcement can be seen going in and out of the building.

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King Charles Will Speak of ‘Reconciliation and Renewal’ During Address to Congress

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King Charles Will Speak of ‘Reconciliation and Renewal’ During Address to Congress

King Charles III of Britain will acknowledge on Tuesday that his country has had its differences with the United States, but he plans to tell a joint session of Congress that the “two countries have always found ways to come together,” according to a preview of his remarks by Buckingham Palace.

The king’s speech is a centerpiece of his first visit to the former colonies as Britain’s monarch. It comes at a fraught time for the relationship between the two governments, with President Trump mocking Prime Minister Keir Starmer for refusing to join the war in Iran.

But in his speech, the king plans to say that the story of the two countries over the past 250 years has been marked by “reconciliation and renewal,” and has produced what he will call “one of the greatest alliances in human history.”

The king and Queen Camilla began planning for their American trip months before the tensions emerged between Mr. Trump and Mr. Starmer. And British officials and representatives of Buckingham Palace have repeatedly said the king does not get involved in day-to-day politics or foreign policy.

But privately, officials have said they are hopeful that the core message in the king’s speech might help to soothe tensions between the president and the prime minister. The palace said he will argue that shared democratic values are woven deeply into the fabric of both countries.

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Palace officials said the king will briefly reference the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday, offering sympathy to Mr. Trump and those who attended.

But he will focus on the things the United States and Britain have done together. In particular, palace officials said, he will speak about cooperation in the Middle East and Ukraine and will take note of the NATO defense pact and the submarine partnership with Australia and the United States.

Mr. Trump has been particularly brutal in his assessment of the British Navy, calling the country’s battleships “toys.” The palace said the king will speak with particular pride about the Royal Navy and its successes.

Mr. Trump has said he is a fan of the royals, often citing the fact that when he was 6, he watched the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the king’s mother.

The royal couple’s arrival at Joint Base Andrews kicked off two days of pomp and circumstance in Washington. The king, dressed in a blue suit, and the queen, wearing a pink coat dress, listened as the U.S. military band played the national anthems of Britain and the United States.

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The king and queen were greeted by the State Department’s top official in charge of protocol. They walked through an honor cordon of U.S. military personnel before heading to the White House for their first formal stop.

There, the royal couple met briefly with Mr. Trump and Melania Trump, the first lady, and viewed a new White House beehive.

The hive, on the South Lawn, is shaped like a miniature White House and is the home for two new bee colonies. Mrs. Trump last week unveiled the latest work of presidential apiculture, the science of maintaining honey bee colonies for pollination, honey production and wax.

The first official White House bee colonies were installed in 2009 by Michelle Obama, the first lady at the time. The bees supported pollination of the White House vegetable garden that Mrs. Obama created as part of her push for healthy eating.

Hives installed by Mrs. Obama support as many as 70,000 bees during peak summer months, according to the White House, and can produce up to 225 pounds of honey a year. The Trump administration said Mrs. Trump’s new hive could increase production to over 255 pounds of honey annually.

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The visit to the White House beehive is a nod to the king’s longstanding interest in environmental issues and conservation.

There are four beehives in the gardens around Buckingham Palace and two more outside Clarence House, the official residence of the royal couple. The official royal website notes that the queen produces honey that is sold at the store Fortnum & Mason to raise money for charity.

Monday’s events concluded with a garden party for the king and queen at the British Embassy. The guest list included White House officials like Stephen Miller, the deputy chief of staff, and his wife, Katie Miller; the House speaker, Mike Johnson; and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

The president and the king will have a private meeting on Tuesday before the king addresses Congress in the afternoon. Mr. Trump will host a state banquet for the royal couple on Tuesday evening.

The king and queen will head to New York City on Wednesday morning, where they will lay a wreath at the Sept. 11 memorial and participate in a gala that evening. The king will also visit a youth organization in Harlem, and the queen will participate in an event at the New York Public Library.

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On Thursday, the royal couple will lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery and travel to rural parts of Virginia.

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