Ethiopian Tigst Assefa smashed the world record at the BMW Berlin Marathon.
She stormed to a tremendous time of 2:11:53 at the Brandenburg Gate and was poetically also 2:11 quicker than former world record holder Brigid Kosgei.
The Kenyan ran 2:14:04 in Chicago in 2019. Going sub-2:12 Assefa’s stunning performance has historic significance.
World Athletics points performance rating puts Assefa’s run as faster than Eliud Kipchoge’s world record of 2:01:09, also run in Berlin last year.
Less than 10 minutes earlier Kipchoge became the Berlin record winner with his fifth triumph. The Kenyan Olympic champion and world record holder ran 2:02:42 which is the eighth fastest time ever run. Germany’s Amanal Petros (Marathon Team Berlin) finished ninth and smashed his German record of 2:06:27 with a superb 2:04:58. Organizers registered a record number of 47,912 runners from 156 nations at the 49th edition of the BMW Berlin Marathon.
