This marathon in Berlin belongs to a 26-year-old runner from Ethiopia, Tigst Assefa. She ran the marathon in 2:11:53 and set a new world record in the women’s marathon.
What is unusual is that this is only her second year competing in marathon races. Back in March 2022, she ran her first marathon in 2:34:01. Less than six months later, she improved her time by 18 minutes, winning the 2022 Berlin Marathon in 2:15:37. A year later, Tigst set a new world record of 2:11:53. A unique progress in just a year and a half.
Her running is characterized by the so-called negative split. This time in Berlin she ran the first half in 66 minutes and 20 seconds and the second half in 65 minutes and 33 seconds. This is something that even the strongest men runners rarely manage. On the second half of the course, her pace reached 3:03 min/km and matched the pace of the men’s leader Eliud Kipchoge, 5-time winner of the Berlin Marathon and world record holder.
The best result among runners of OMY! Sports belongs to Oleg Mazurov with a time of 2:43:01.