Tigist Assefa obliterates women's marathon world record in Berlin

Tigist Assefa has won the women's marathon in Berlin on Sunday, obliterating the world record in the process.

The Ethiopian athlete was the defending champion having won last year's race in a time of 2:15.37, blitzing the field on that occasion in a course record.

However, this time around, Assefa made even more history, prevailing in a remarkable time of 2:11.53, beating the previous mark held by Brigid Kosgei.

That time of 2:14.04 was set in Chicago back in 2019, but there was always the possibility of a new world record being set with Berlin renown as one of the fastest routes on the calendar.

Nevertheless, few could have predicted the time which has been set, with the former 800m runner having only been focused on marathons as recently as 18 months ago.

🏆 WORLD RECORD 🏆

Tigist Assefa smashes the world record with 2:11:52 at the BMW #BerlinMarathon #AbbottWMM pic.twitter.com/rBV2lLHIe7

— Abbott WMMajors (@WMMajors) September 24, 2023

At the halfway stage, five fellow athletes had been on world-record pace, yet Assefa would finish almost six minutes ahead of runner-up Sheila Chepkirui.

In the men's race, Eliud Kipchoge won in Berlin for a fifth time, albeit in a far more competitive race than the women's equivalent.

Kenyan compatriot Vincent Kipkemoi finished just 31 seconds adrift of the double Olympic champion, who posted a time of 2:02.42.

Kipchoge was over a minute-and-a-half slower than the world record of 2:01:09 that he set in the same race 12 months ago.