Assefa limps home in a course-record 2:11:04 as Adola wins Berlin again
Tigst Assefa was inside world-record pace at 40 km before an injury left her limping through the final two kilometres. She still won by more than five minutes and broke her own course record. Guye Adola won the men’s race in 2:02:50.
Tigst Assefa won the Berlin Marathon for the third time on 27 September, setting a course record of 2 hours 11 minutes 4 seconds despite an injury that left her visibly limping over the final two kilometres. Guye Adola won the men’s race in a personal best of 2:02:50.
Assefa, 29, was running inside world-record pace at 40 km. She slowed sharply in the closing stretch and missed the world record of 2:09:56, set by Ruth Chepngetich in Chicago in 2024, by 68 seconds. Even so, she finished more than five minutes clear of her Ethiopian compatriots Bedatu Hirpa, second in 2:16:53, and Dera Dida, two seconds further back.
The time improves on the course record of 2:11:53 Assefa set in Berlin in 2023, which was then a world record. It is among the fastest marathons ever run by a woman. Reports from Berlin did not immediately give details of the injury.
Adola’s long road back to Berlin
In the men’s race, Ethiopia’s Guye Adola won in 2:02:50 ahead of Gemechu Dida, who ran 2:03:19, and Tanzania’s Gabriel Geay, third in 2:03:59.
Adola has a long history with this course. On his marathon debut in Berlin in 2017 he pushed Eliud Kipchoge deep into the race, and he returned to win the 2021 edition. This was his second Berlin title, and a personal best.
The men’s race was missing its two biggest names. Defending champion Sabastian Sawe, who in April became the first man to run a record-eligible marathon under two hours, withdrew with an injury a month before the race. Kenenisa Bekele, a former Berlin champion, also withdrew, with an Achilles injury.
Germany’s Esther Pfeiffer, who had targeted Irina Mikitenko’s national record from 2008, did not finish.
Switzerland’s Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner won the wheelchair races, as they did two weeks later in Chicago.
What it means
Assefa’s season has now included a women-only world record in London in April (2:15:41) and, in Berlin, the fastest marathon of her career. The question after Berlin is less about her fitness than her health: how serious the injury is, and whether it affects her plans for 2027.
Adola’s time of 2:02:50 is as given in World Athletics’ race report; a few early reports gave 2:02:51.
