On a perfect fall morning in Berlin, Ethiopia’s former women’s marathon world record holder Tigst Assefa made a bold attempt at the controversial 2:09:56 marathon mark set by Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich in Chicago in 2024. The Kenyan’s time remained standing even after Chepngetich subsequently tested positive in an out-of-competition drug test in 2025. But since the Chicago record preceded the positive finding, it remained on the books as valid.

Notwithstanding its controversial standing, Assefa went after it without hesitation. Leaving her competitors behind from the jump, she joined her pacers at 2:10 pace on a bright, clear morning that seemed to welcome the attempt on the 52nd running of the great race.

As the kilometers clicked over like dominoes falling, the two-time Berlin champion and former world record holder at 2:11:53 in 2023 hovered at a perfectly calibrated near-record pace. Amid the ongoing drug scandal plaguing the sport, the women’s marathon record is one that many fans would love to see taken down.

As late as 39K, highly regarded British commentator Tim Hutchings called it, “a bit of a stroll in the park for her.”

Just ahead, men’s leader Guye Adola of Ethiopia was negotiating the final stretch, his angular shadow striding just to his right as he passed through the Brandenburg Gate in the mid-morning slant of sun. He had slowed in the final kilometers, 3:04 in his last, and was now running just a few seconds per kilometer faster than Assefa. 

After the 35-year-old Adola completed his second win in the German capital in a 2:02:50 PR, five years after his last victory in Berlin, the coverage shifted from the men’s podium finishers back to the women.

Suddenly, for the first time, we could see the damage that had been done to Tigst Assefa over the previous 4½ minutes while we were away.

The serenity of her record rhythm was gone. In its place was the rictus of an athlete in major crisis.

She had passed 40K in 2:03:00, still on world-record pace. Her previous four 10K segments had been remarkably consistent, all between 30:41 and 30:48. She was projected to finish in roughly 2:09:44.

But now, as the grimace spread across her face and the limp in her stride worsened, the question became whether she could finish at all as she tried to maintain her effort amid the pain.

With the crowds urging her on, her 41st kilometer fell to 3:22, and the record was gone.

We hadn’t seen such a struggle since I don’t know when. In the era of super shoes and super nutrition, when technology has made the marathon increasingly precise in its management of pace, fuel and fatigue, the distance had suddenly returned to something much older and more elemental.

But this wasn’t fatigue. She was experiencing a problem with her chassis.

She couldn’t stride out. Every step was agony and a warning. Even the midsole cushioning of her super shoes couldn’t protect her. Yet the Brandenburg Gate loomed just ahead like a summons, while a course record and personal record still remained as goals.

The 2024 Olympic and 2025 World Championship silver medalist had trained 200 to 250 kilometers a week in the rarefied altitude outside Addis Ababa. All of that work had brought her to this moment.

In the end, she managed to cross the finish line. The clock stopped at 2:11:04, a 49-second personal best and a new course record.

But the unspoken goal of a new world record had vanished in less than two kilometers.

The cruelty of the marathon had once again shown itself.

Collapsing to the pavement within a step of crossing the line, Assefa fell to all fours atop a storm grate along the curb. Whatever discomfort her knees might have felt at that moment was less than the stabbing pain coming from her lower right leg.

Countryman and former three-time Berlin champion and world record holder Haile Gebrselassie came over to attend to her, along with the medical team from Berlin.

Such a sight has largely been erased over the last decade as the sport entered the super-shoe and super-nutrition era. But when pushed to the ragged edge, the once-mighty marathon had shown that she still has some fight of her own to reclaim supremacy over her 26.2-mile, 42.2-kilometer borders.

A brave effort by Assefa had been met by a strong defense from the marathon herself.

It was a great fight.

Glad to see the marathon can still put one up.

END