Tigst Assefa facts for kids

Tigst on her way to the world record at the 2023 Berlin Marathon
Quick facts for kids Personal information
Full name	Tigst Assefa Tessema
Born	(1996-12-03) 3 December 1996 (age 27) Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Height	1.68 m
Weight	53 kg
Sport
Country	Ethiopia
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Long-distance running
Coached by	Gemedu Dedefo
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	800 m: 1:59.24 (Lausanne 2014) Marathon: 2:11:53 WR (Berlin 2023)
Medal record Women's athletics Representing  Ethiopia World Marathon Majors Gold 2022 Berlin Marathon Gold 2023 Berlin Marathon African Junior Championships Silver 2013 Bambous 4x400 m relay Bronze 2013 Bambous 800 m

Tigst Assefa Tessema (Amharic: ትእግስት አሰፋ; born 3 December 1996) 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 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, 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 World Athletics profile, at the age of 12, she won the bronze medal in the 400 metres at the 2009 senior Ethiopian Athletics Championships, stopping the clock at 56.70 seconds. She gained her first international experience in January 2012, in France, where she competed for the first time in the 800 metres, although failing to finish. The 15-year-old represented that year Ethiopia in the 400 m at the senior African Championships in Athletics in Porto-Novo, Benin, setting a new personal best in the heats with a time of 54.05 s.

After 2012, she has never raced a non-relay 400 m again, shifting to twice the distance. 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.

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.

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. 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.

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. 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).

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. In December, she also won the Bahrain Royal Night Half Marathon in country's capital Manama.

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

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, 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".

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.

Achievements

Information from World Athletics profile.

Personal bests

International competitions

Representing  Ethiopia

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Time
2012	African Championships	Porto-Novo, Benin	19th (sf)	400 m	55.58
			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