On Sunday September 24, Eliud Kipchoge’s passage across the finish line of the Berlin Marathon was eagerly awaited: last year, he set the world record (2h 1m 9s) in the German capital . The Kenyan, 38, was the first to cross it, offering himself a historic fifth victory for this race (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2023) and thus overtaking the Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) in the annals of the event. Although he ran fast – 2:2:42, the eighth fastest marathon in history – he did not manage to repeat the feat.

This Sunday, the sensation came from Tigst Assefa. The Ethiopian shattered the women’s world record, in 2:11:53, lowering the previous best mark set by Kenyan Brigid Kosgei in Chicago (Illinois) in 2019, by more than two minutes (2:14:44). ). The runner also signs her second victory in a row in Berlin. At 26, she was the first athlete to go under 2h 12m.

This is all the more significant as Tigst Assefa competed in the first marathon of her career… in 2022. She has so far only completed three races over 42.195 km: her first attempt in Riyadh, in March last year , was completed in 2h34min01s, then it had already surprised in the German capital last September.

Almost at the same pace as Kipchoge

First a specialist in 800 meters (5th in her series at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016), she moved on to road races in 2018, over 10 km, before tackling the half-marathon then, therefore, the marathon. “Last year’s race [in Berlin] was an unexpected success for me. I think I can run even faster on Sunday. An improvement would be a success, explained two days before the German meeting. A lot of things can happen in a race. I want to concentrate on improving my record, but I am not thinking about the world record. »

This Sunday, she covered the last kilometers at almost the same pace as Eliud Kipchoge. The reigning double Olympic champion will have reassured himself a little after his disillusionment in Boston (Massachusetts), where he ranked only 6th, more than three minutes behind the winner. In just over ten months, he will try to win Olympic gold at the Paris Games in 2024, the third after Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, something no runner has managed to achieve in history.