Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa smashes women’s marathon world record in Berlin

Berlin, Germany

Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa smashed the women’s marathon world record as she won Sunday’s race in Berlin.

Assefa, who also won last year’s race, crossed the line in a time of two hours, 11 minutes and 53 seconds.

The 26-year-old took more than two minutes off the previous record of 2:14.04 – set by Kenya’s Brigid Kosgei in Chicago in 2019.

Double Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge was the men’s winner for a record fifth time in Berlin with a run of 2:02.42.

The 38-year-old Kenyan set the men’s record of 2:01.09 in Berlin last year, when he moved level with Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie on four wins.

Assefa’s winning time is the 13th world record to be set in Berlin, where she won last year in 2:15.37 – which at the time was the third fastest women’s run in history.

“I am very happy,” she said. “I wanted to break the marathon world record, but I couldn’t imagine that it would result in a time under 2:12.”

A former 800m specialist, Assefa only started racing marathons in April last year.

She made her intentions clear on her return to Berlin, setting a lightning-quick early pace before reaching the halfway mark in one hour, six minutes, 20 seconds.

Source : BBC News

One thought on “Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa smashes women’s marathon world record in Berlin

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *