Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa broke the women-only world record by 26 seconds at the TCS London Marathon, clocking 2:15:50 to win the World Athletics Platinum Label road race on Sunday.
The Olympic silver medalist kicked away from Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei to clinch her first London Marathon win after finishing second to Peres Jepchirchir last year.
Jepchirchir’s winning mark of 2:16:16 a year ago had also been a women-only world record and that is the mark Assefa improved, finishing strongly to win by almost three minutes ahead of Jepkosgei (2:18:43). Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands was third (2:18:59).
As the race progressed, Assefa unleashed a decisive move after 35 kilometer surging ahead with a rapid 5:02 24th mile. By the 40 kilometers mark, she had established a commanding 50 second lead and powered home in a time that stands among the greatest performances in history.
This is the third fastest marathon of Assefa’s career, behind her 2: 11: 53 world record in a mixed race set in Berlin in 2023, and her 2: 15: 37 from Berlin 2022.
A short while later, the men’s race was won by Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe in 2:02:27 – the second-fastest ever London Marathon time.
Uganda’s world half marathon record-holder Jacob Kiplimo was second on his marathon debut, clocking 2:03:37.
MG/as/APA