Three and a half minutes faster than the “big” Paula Radcliffe, more than two minutes faster than the current world record set by Brigid Kosgei from Kenya – what Tigist Assefa showed on Sunday at the Berlin Marathon on the streets of the German capital was impressive, even historic. The 26-year-old Ethiopian pulverized Kosgei’s old best time (2:14:04) in 2:11:53 hours and left the running world amazed with their mouths open.
Although Assefa competed in Berlin as the defending champion, no one had expected such a performance from her – in fact, no one had even thought it possible that a woman could run the marathon for such a time. “I wanted to break the marathon world record, but I couldn’t imagine that it would be a time under 2:12,” said Assefa himself after the race. “I am very happy.”
Carried from Berlin
However, this happiness only broke out when she had crossed the finish line in the immediate vicinity of the Brandenburg Gate. She crossed herself, sank to her knees, kissed first the asphalt and finally her shoe. Earlier on the route she had been highly concentrated and had completed her program with a serious face. It was clear early on from the split times that it would be an incredible time. Assefa later explained that she held back in the first half of the race, “so that I wouldn’t be tired in the second half. I was able to muster a lot more strength in the second part.”
This was also due to the loud support of Berliners. “I can say that the people carried me all the way to the finish,” she told RBB. “I would like to thank the people here in Berlin. What they did for me was a great help.”
Assefa ran the penultimate of the 42.195 kilometers in 3:03 minutes. The men’s winner, marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge, managed it just a few seconds faster – in 2:59 minutes. The world record holder from Kenya ran the eighth best time in Berlin that a male runner has ever completed the marathon course. This also underlines what an outstanding achievement Assefa achieved.
Unusual path of 800 meters to the marathon
It is normal for runners to switch to the marathon after a few years of experience at distances that take place on the stadium track. Before his time in the marathon, Kipchoge was an outstanding 5000 meter runner. The British Paula Radcliffe was the world leader in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters before she finally chose the very long distance and held the marathon world record from 2003 to 2019 (2:15:25). There are many other examples of athletes who switch from the track to the road at the end of their career. Haile Gebrselassie, probably the most popular runner from Assefa’s homeland of Ethiopia, is also one of them.
On the other hand, the path that Tigist Assefa took is very unusual: she started as a 400 and 800 meter runner and showed particular talent in the double stadium lap. At the age of 17, she set her best time in the summer of 2014 with 1:59:24 minutes. For comparison: Caster Semenya from South Africa became Olympic champion in London in 2012 with 1:57:23 minutes, while Kenya’s Eunice Jepkoech Sun became world champion in 2013 with 1:57:38 minutes. Assefa was already at the top of the world as a teenager.
She won the bronze medal in the 800 meters at the African Junior Championships in 2013 and competed in this distance for Ethiopia at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Nevertheless, she then decided to do the 10-kilometer road race and finally the marathon – allegedly because running in spikes on the track caused pain in her Achilles tendon.
Increase of 19 minutes in six months
Assefa comes from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. There are different information about her age. Some sources say she is already 29 years old, others give December 3, 1996 as her birthday. This younger age is also used by her manager, the Italian Gianni Demadonna, who has many top African runners under contract. Assefa’s coach is Ethiopia’s “super coach” Gemedu Dedefo, who has produced Ethiopian running stars such as Gebrselassie, Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba.
Assefa only ran her first marathon 18 months before her current world record run. In March 2022 she still needed 2:34 hours to complete the route. At her second start, the Berlin Marathon 2022, it was only 2:15:37 hours, an increase of 19 minutes in just six months. Demadonna explained this, among other things, by saying that she was still carrying around eight kilos of excess weight at her premiere after a forced break due to Corona.
She trains, among other places, in Trento in northeastern Italy, but also in Iten, on the Kenyan plateau, at an altitude of around 2,400 meters. It was also clear to her team that Assefa is good and can run fast times. “I’m absolutely speechless,” said Demadonna after his protégé’s record run in Berlin.
Better running economy thanks to Wunderschuh
The shoe that Assefa used in Berlin is also unusual. The model from the German sporting goods manufacturer Adidas is extremely light. The extra thick sole consists of a foam that, on the one hand, cushions the impact of your steps on the asphalt, but at the same time also releases energy upwards for the next step. A carbon plate is also incorporated into the sole. You can run more economically with these shoes than with ordinary running shoes and, according to experts, gain a time advantage of many seconds to several minutes over the marathon distance.
The disadvantage of the “miracle shoe”: It is not very durable and loses its performance-enhancing effect after just a few hours of use, after which the 500 euro shoe basically belongs in the trash. Assefa is one of only ten track and field athletes worldwide that Adidas equips with this model.
Comparison with marathon legend Abebe Bikila
In her home country she is now being compared to the country’s greatest marathon legend, Abebe Bikila – a very great honor. Bikila won Ethiopia’s first gold medal in the history of the Olympic Games in the marathon in Rome in 1960. At that time it took him 2:15:16 hours to complete the route. Although he was slower than Tigist Assefa when she set her world record in Berlin, Bikila also competed on the streets of Rome with bare feet.