Tigst Assefa set the world record at the Berlin marathon in September 2023 with a time of 2 hours 11 minutes and 54 seconds. She shaved off more than 2 minutes from Brigid Kosgei’s record set in 2019.
Assefa’s time is 4:29 faster than Peres Jepchirchir’s new record for a women’s-only marathon (2:16:16), set in London in April.
The World No 1 says she is strongly confident she will run a sub-2:10 marathon.
In 2011, governing body World Athletics decided that only times from women’s-only marathons would count, citing concerns that male pacesetters provided female runners with an ‘unfair advantage’ and threatened the ‘overall integrity of the sport’. By 2021, the ruling was that both categories would be recognised but tracked separately.
The first time the men’s record hit below 2:10:00 was in 1967. The record time for men is 2:00:35, set by the late Kelvin Kiptum.