Tigst Assefa

In March, after a two-year hiatus due to a career-threatening injury sustained in 2019 in Valencia and also the COVID-19 pandemic, the 25-year-old debuted in the marathon distance at the inaugural Riyadh Marathon in Saudi Arabia, finishing seventh with a time of 2:34:01. She was eight kilograms overweight and not race fit.[2][4] She then participated in races until June, competing in three 10 km events and two half marathons, winning all of them and setting new personal bests (30:52 in Langueux, France and 67:28 at the adizero Road to Records event in Herzogenaurach, Germany, respectively).[1]

Tigst set the third-fastest female performance in history at the Berlin Marathon in September. She stopped the clock at two hours 15 minutes 37 seconds, her winning time slower only than 2:14:04 of world record-holder Brigid Kosgei and 2:15:25 of former record-holder Paula Radcliffe, an over 18 minutes improvement of her personal best. Running with a negative split, after the 68:13 first half of the race, her second half of 67:24 was faster by 4 s than her then half marathon lifetime best. Thus she won by over two minutes, bettered a course record by more than two and a half minutes, and set an Ethiopian record.[5][6][7] In December, she also won the Bahrain Royal Night Half Marathon in country's capital Manama.[1]

External media
WR at the 2023 Berlin Marathon
Images
With a lead car's clock[8]
Video
Crossing the finish line[9]

On 24 September, Tigst competed again at the Berlin Marathon and set a new female world record with a time of two hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds, chopping 2:11 minutes from Kenya's Brigid Kosgei's standard of 2:14:04 which had been set in 2019 in Chicago. Thus Tigst became the first woman to break the 2:14-hour, 2:13-hour and 2:12-hour barriers in a marathon. Racing with a negative split again, the Ethiopian completed the first half of the race in 66:20, putting her on path to improve the world record by more than a minute. Yet she was even almost a minute quicker in the final half, which was covered in 65:33. She ran her 38th kilometre only 3 seconds slower than the male winner, world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, clocking 3:06 which was also her second half average pace, and closed with her last 2.195 km in 6:40 (3:02 min/km pace) to Kipchoge's 6:36. Tigst averaged 3:07.5 min/km pace for the full 42.195-kilometre distance and beat the runner-up by almost six minutes, although she had assistance of the male pacemaker Girmay Birhanu Gebru for almost the entire distance.[10][4][3][11]

This was the first time that an Ethiopian woman broke the marathon world record, although Fatuma Roba and Tiki Gelana have already been Olympic marathon champions. Tigst's time was faster than the old men's world best mark of her compatriot Abebe Bikila, who in 1960, running barefoot, has become the first black African to win an Olympic marathon title and who set his best of 2:12:11.2 in 1964.[12]