Many people believed that Tigist Assefa had a score to settle at this year’s London Marathon. The former marathon world record holder who clocked a seismic 2:11:53 at the 2023 Berlin Marathon, Assefa, of Ethiopia, was then surpassed by Kenya’s Ruth Chepngetich just over a year later at 2024 Chicago Marathon. Chepngetich’s time? A gobsmacking 2:09:56 – the first (and still only) instance of a woman running a marathon in under 2:10.
Then came the women’s marathon at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. After a dramatic tussle with Dutch athlete Sifan Hassan on the finishing stretch, which become one of the moments of Games, Assefa lost the battle to secure an imperfect silver. Hassan got the gold.
And so to the 2025 London Marathon, held on Sunday 27 April. Although Chepngetich withdrew from the field before race day, Assefa still had to face her Paris nemesis, Hassan, on the streets of the English capital. But she wasn’t deterred. At the London Marathon elite women’s press conference, held just days before the race, Assefa said that she was ‘in better shape now’ than she was when she ran her then-world record in Berlin.
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These bold words appeared to ring true. Hassan placed third, while Assefa shot ahead to win the race a time of 2:15:50 – a new women’s-only* marathon world record.
Energised by her latest world record, Adidas athlete Assefa visited the brand’s archive in Herzogenaurach, Germany, to reflect upon the things that she does, thinks and wears when she sets out to win. Here’s what she told us.
* To resolve any confusion, a women’s-only marathon world record can only be achieved at a race in which women, exclusively, take part. As such, the London Marathon is a prime venue for this record, since elite women and elite men compete separately. The women’s marathon record, meanwhile, can be attained at women’s-only and mixed-sex races.
Defying them all on The Mall
Assefa didn’t just scrape the win – or the women’s-only record – in London last month. Her dominance was loud and clear. For starters, she bettered the previous women’s-only world record of 2:16:16 – which was set at the 2024 London Marathon by Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir – by almost 30 seconds. What’s more, she kicked on to finish almost three minutes ahead of Joyciline Jepkosgei, also of Kenya, who placed second in a time of 2:18:44 – even though the pair had spent much of the race running shoulder to shoulder.
‘Once I started, you know, to run to the finish line and I looked back and saw that there were no other runners following me up, I knew that I’d already won,’ says Assafa, recalling her victory in London. ‘I felt very proud of myself.’
Although the race was far from easy, Assefa still felt ‘really happy’ while running the race. ‘I got a lot of energy back from the crowds, which were cheering me up,’ she smiles. ‘It gives me huge morale to do even better and to break more records in future.’
Training for triumph
You can’t simply turn up to the start line of a marathon and expect to run your finest race without any training under your belt. It goes without saying, then, that Assefa – a former 800m specialist – has put in the hours and the miles to get to where she is now.
‘I’d done very hard training,’ she says, thinking back to her preparations for the 2025 London Marathon. ‘I didn’t do anything else after training, though. I’d go back home and rest the whole time. Then, I’d wake up the next day and do the same thing. I treated myself well, mentally and physically.’
In fact, maintaining a strong and healthy mindset is something that Assefa puts above all else, both in training and on race day.
‘The mental readiness is more important than the physical readiness,’ notes Assefa. ‘You have to be really happy with yourself. You have to be free of thoughts. I had to make myself really well prepared for the training by treating myself very well.’
The motivation to keep running
Assefa wants to inspire others while maintaining her competitive edge. Why run marathons if there are no opponents who can challenge you to become an even stronger, faster and more determined athlete than before?
‘Especially for women and young women looking at me, they can know that everything is possible,’ she says. ‘When I am breaking records, all the runners who are coming after me will be inspired and try to do more.
‘The support that I get from my family, my husband, my manager and Adidas is what motivates me to do more,’ adds Assefa, who, for her London Marathon win this year, laced up in the Adidas Adizero Adios Pro Evo 1 – the same hyped-up racer that she wore for her historic 2:11:53 victory in Berlin in 2023. ‘That makes me happy – and it makes me a better athlete.’
