Tigst Assefa

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Tigst Assefa
Tigst on her way to the world record at the 2023 Berlin Marathon
Personal information
Full nameTigst Assefa Tessema
Born (1996-12-03) 3 December 1996 (age 27)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Height1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight53 kg (117 lb)
Sport
CountryEthiopia
SportAthletics
EventLong-distance running
Coached byGemedu Dedefo
Achievements and titles
Highest world ranking1st (Marathon, 2023)[1]
Personal bests
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Ethiopia
World Marathon Majors
Gold medal – first place 2022 Berlin Marathon
Gold medal – first place 2023 Berlin Marathon
African Junior Championships
Silver medal – second place 2013 Bambous 4x400 m relay
Bronze medal – third place 2013 Bambous 800 m

Tigst Assefa Tessema (

Amharic: ትእግስት አሰፋ; born 3 December 1996)[2] is an Ethiopian long-distance runner and the marathon female world record holder. She is the only woman in history to run a marathon in under two hours 12 minutes and two hours 13 minutes. She has competed in and won two top-tier World Marathon Majors, both in Berlin. A former 800 metres
specialist, Tigst was the first woman to break 2:00 in the event and 2:20:00 in the marathon, and remains the only woman under 2:00 and 2:13:00, respectively.

At the age of 16, she won the bronze medal in the 800 m at the 2013 African Junior Championships. She finished fourth at the senior African Championships the following year, and then represented Ethiopia in the event at the 2016 Rio Olympics aged 19. Tigst ran then the third-fastest female marathon in history at the 2022 Berlin Marathon[3] and obliterated the world record by 2:11 minutes at the 2023 Berlin Marathon, on 24 September, with a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds,[4][5] becoming the first woman to break the 2:14-hour, 2:13-hour and 2:12-hour barriers in a marathon.

Career

Tigst (in yellow shirt) at a meet in Reims, France in 2013

According to Tigst Assefa's

personal best in the heats with a time of 54.05 s.[2]

After 2012, she has never raced a non-relay 400 m again, shifting to twice the distance.[2] In 2013, aged 16, Tigst became Ethiopian junior champion, clocked a personal best of 2:01.25 in Bellinzona, Switzerland, and earned bronze at the African Junior Championships held in Réduit, Mauritius, where she also added silver for the 4 × 400 m relay. The following year, she ran a lifetime best of 1:59.24 at the Lausanne Diamond League, again in Switzerland, finished fourth at the African Championships in Marrakesh, Morocco, won the ISTAF Berlin meet in Germany, and placed fourth at the IAAF Continental Cup staged also in Marrakesh. She competed in only two races in 2015.[2]

In 2016, still 19, Tigst represented Ethiopia in the 800 metres at the World Indoor Championships held in Portland, United States and at the Rio Olympic Games in Brazil, although failing to advance past preliminary rounds both in the first and second event; she won the race at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix meet in Japan in between.[2]

After 2016, she never raced on the track again as an ongoing Achilles tendon injury prevented her from training in spikes. After a two-year break, in November 2018, the then 21-year-old debuted on the roads, racing the 10 km in Dubai for a time of 34:35.[3] Tigst improved by almost three minutes (31:45) in Germany the following year, when she also debuted in the half marathon at the Valencia Half Marathon in Spain, finishing fifth in 68:24.[2]

2022: #3 female marathon all time

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's capital, finishing seventh with a time of 2:34:01. She was eight kilograms overweight and not race fit.[3][5] 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).[2]

Tigst set the then 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.[6][7][8] In December, she also won the Bahrain Royal Night Half Marathon in country's capital Manama.[2]

2023: World marathon record – first woman under 2:14, 2:13 and 2:12

External media
WR at the 2023 Berlin Marathon
Images
image icon With a lead car's clock[9]
Video
video icon Crossing the finish line[10]

On 24 September, Tigst competed again at the Berlin Marathon and set a new female world record with a landmark 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 at the 2019 Chicago Marathon. Thus Tigst became the first woman to break the 2:14-hour, 2:13-hour and 2:12-hour barriers in a marathon. She completed the first half of the race almost two minutes faster than the previous year with a time of 66:20, putting her on path to improve the world record by more than a minute. Yet racing with a negative split again, she was even almost a minute quicker in the final half, which was covered in 65:33. The Ethiopian ran her 38th kilometre only 3 seconds slower than the male winner, former world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, clocking 3:06 which was also her second half average pace, and closed with her last 2.195 km timed at 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 race. She also wore new, so called "super shoes".[11][5][4][12]

This was the first time that an Ethiopian woman broke the marathon world record. Tigst's time was faster than the old men's world best mark of her compatriot Abebe Bikila, who in 1960, running barefoot, became the first black African to win an Olympic marathon title and who set his best of 2:12:11 in 1964. Actually, her time would have been the men’s world record until December 1967.[13][14]

Achievements

Information from World Athletics profile.[2]

Personal bests

Type Event Time Date Place Notes
Track 400 metres 54.05 27 June 2012 Porto-Novo, Benin
800 metres 1:59.24 3 July 2014 Lausanne, Switzerland
Road 10 km 30:52 25 June 2022 Langueux, France
Half marathon 1:07:28 30 April 2022 Herzogenaurach, Germany
Marathon 2:11:53 24 September 2023 Berlin, Germany World record

International competitions

Representing  Ethiopia
Year Competition Venue Position Event Time
2012 African Championships Porto-Novo, Benin 19th (sf) 400 m 55.58[note 1]
7th 4 × 400 m relay 3:41.10
2013 African Junior Championships Réduit, Mauritius 3rd 800 m 2:05.6h
2nd 4 × 400 m relay 3:42.2h
2014 African Championships Marrakesh, Morocco 4th 800 m 2:00.43
Continental Cup Marrakesh, Morocco 4th 800 m 2:00.57
2016 World Indoor Championships Portland, OR, United States 12th (h) 800 m i 2:04.55
Olympic Games Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 20th (h) 800 m 2:00.21 SB
World Marathon Majors
2022 Berlin Marathon Berlin, Germany 1st Marathon 2:15:37 CR NR
2023 Berlin Marathon Berlin, Germany 1st Marathon 2:11:53 CR WR

Notes

  1. ^ In the heats Tigst ran a time of 54.05 seconds.

References

  1. ^ https://worldathletics.org/world-rankings/marathon/women?regionType=world&page=1&rankDate=2023-12-26
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Tigst ASSEFA – Athlete Profile". World Athletics. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Gretschel, Johanna (28 September 2022). "From the 800 to the Marathon: The Story Behind Tigist Assefa's Berlin Breakthrough". Runner's World. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  4. ^
    ISSN 1756-3224
    . Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  5. ^ a b c Miller, Ben (29 September 2023). "Marathon record breaker Tigst Assefa, her coach and experts on historic run". BBC Sport. Retrieved 29 September 2023.
  6. ^ "Kipchoge breaks world record in Berlin with 2:01:09". World Athletics. 25 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  7. ^ "Eliud Kipchoge (2:01:09) Smashes World Record; Tigist Assefa (2:15:37) Stuns World at 2022 Berlin Marathon". LetsRun.com. 25 September 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  8. ^ Henderson, Jason (25 September 2022). "Eliud Kipchoge smashes world marathon record in Berlin". AW. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  9. ^ https://archive.today/20230927071315/https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-marathon-assefa-smashes-womens-world-record/a-66910173
  10. ^ https://archive.today/20230927072314/https://www.youtube.com/@berlin-marathon/videos
  11. ^ "Assefa smashes women's marathon world record". BBC Sport. 24 September 2023. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  12. ISSN 1756-3224
    . Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  13. Let's Run
    . Retrieved 25 September 2023.
  14. ^ Rowbottom, Mike (25 September 2023). "Why Assefa's landmark women's world marathon record may not last that long". Inside the Games. Retrieved 25 September 2023.

External links

Records
Preceded by Women's marathon world record holder
24 September 2023 – present
Succeeded by
Incumbent