Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa, the surprise winner of the women’s race at last year’s Berlin Marathon, shocked the world yet again, running 2:11:53 to break the women’s world record by more than 2 minutes. The mark obliterates Brigid Kosgei’s 2:14:04, Fast and Flat Boston Qualifying Marathons.
It was only Assefa’s third marathon, and the 26-year-old former 800-meter runner took the lead by 15K, at the front of a group of 12 women who were all on world-record pace. She ran the 16th kilometer in 2:59, opening a gap. By 20K, she was 30 seconds ahead of Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui.
Aided by male pacemakers and near-perfect conditions—the weather was partly cloudy and 58 degrees at the start—Assefa passed the halfway mark in 1:06:20, a 5:04 pace, and 40 seconds ahead of the 1:06:59 Kosgei split during her record-breaking run in Chicago. And she continued picking up speed, running a 1:05:33 second half (a 5-minute pace).
In the end, Assefa crossed the line nearly 6 minutes before her next competitor—Chepkirui was second in 2:17:49—and almost 4 minutes faster than her course record of 2:15:37 from last year. Tanzania’s Magdalena Shauri was third in 2:18:41. In total, eight women finished under the 2:20 mark. Annie Frisbie was the first American, running 2:27:02 to place 17th.
On the broadcast afterward, Assefa called her victory “the result of hard work,” and said that while she thought she could break the record, the margin by which she did so surprised even her.
Results: 2023 Berlin Marathon Running Shoes & Gear by adidas on Sunday—a $500 shoe that’s only designed to be used for just one marathon. “All of our running footwear is designed and built to the highest possible standards. This is a shoe optimized for speed, versus durability, and has been engineered to provide maximum support for athletes at the lowest weight possible. The shoe is optimized for over one marathon race including respective training sessions,” says an Adidas spokesperson.
Before an Achilles injury caused her to move to the roads, Assefa was a middle-distance runner, representing Ethiopia in the 800 meters at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Since winning Berlin last year, she’d raced only once, winning the Bahrain Royal Night Half Marathon in 1:07:40 in December. She was slated to run the London Marathon, but withdrew because of injury.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article spelled Assefa’s first name as “Tigist,” and listed her age as 29, as printed in media materials for the Berlin Marathon. The article has been updated to reflect her name and age as listed on World Athletics.
Cindy is a freelance health and fitness writer, author, and podcaster who’s contributed regularly to Runner’s World since 2013. She’s the coauthor of both Breakthrough Women’s Running: Dream Big and Train Smart and Rebound: Train Your Mind to Bounce Back Stronger from Sports Injuries, a book about the psychology of sports injury from Bloomsbury Sport. Cindy specializes in covering injury prevention and recovery, everyday athletes accomplishing extraordinary things, and the active community in her beloved Chicago, where winter forges deep bonds between those brave enough to train through it.
