2026 Berlin Marathon Live Updates and Results

Tigst Assefa had surgery on Monday to repair a complete rupture of her right Achilles tendon, her manager, Gianni Demadonna, told Marathon Handbook. Dr. Johannes Gabel performed the operation at BG Unfallklinik Murnau, south of Munich.

Demadonna said Assefa first felt pain at around 31 kilometers and had no Achilles problems before the race. She will spend two months without walking and a month walking and cycling before she begins to run again, and the team has not set a timeline for her return to competition. Read our full report.

Tigst Assefa will have surgery on her right Achilles tendon in Munich on Monday. Her manager, Gianni Demadonna, told Kenya’s Pura Vida Sports Africa that “the right tendon is broken” and that she will be operated on by Dr. Johannes Gabel, head of foot and ankle surgery at the BG Unfallklinik Murnau, south of Munich.

Demadonna said she may need about six months before she races again. Read our full report on her injury.

We recorded our instant reactions to both races live from Berlin, covering Guye Adola’s second title, Assefa’s run and the injury that cost her the record.

Tigst Assefa has been taken to hospital after the race, with what race organizers are describing as a possible “tendon injury.”

Assefa was treated in the medical tent after the finish and missed both the podium ceremony and the post-race press conference. We will update here when there is more news on her condition.

For the complete story of both races, including how they unfolded and what the results mean for the rest of the season, read our full reports:

• Guye Adola Wins the Berlin Marathon for a Second Time
• Tigst Assefa Wins the Berlin Marathon in a Course Record

Here is Assefa’s race checkpoint by checkpoint, measured against the even pace needed to break Ruth Chepngetich’s world record of 2:09:56. Record pace is 3:04.8 per kilometer, and the split and time figures are from the official timing.

After a slightly cautious first 5K, Assefa was never more than two seconds from record pace between 10K and 25K. She then ran her two fastest 5K splits of the day, 15:15 and 15:17, to build her largest margin of 15 seconds at 35K. She was still 10 seconds ahead at 40K.

The final 2.195 kilometers took her 8:04, or 3:40 per kilometer, as she limped to the finish. Record pace for that stretch was 6:46, so the last few minutes of the race cost her 78 seconds and the record.

The 52nd Berlin Marathon did not produce the world record it was built around, but it did produce one of the most courageous runs in the history of the event. Tigst Assefa spent 40 kilometers on or near world record pace, tucked behind her male pacemakers with no other woman within four minutes of her by 30K.

When her stride gave way after 40K, the record went with it, and she could have stopped. She kept running instead, limping along Unter den Linden and through the Brandenburg Gate, and finished in 2:11:04, a course record, a personal best by 49 seconds and the third-fastest time any woman has run.

Many marathon records are set on days when everything goes right. Fewer runs look like this one, where an athlete commits fully to a target, holds it for almost the whole distance and finishes the race after the target is gone. Assefa crossed the line unable to stay on her feet and was still in the medical tent when her podium ceremony went ahead without her.

The world record stays with Ruth Chepngetich for now, but Assefa’s run is the performance people will remember from Berlin this year. We hope to hear good news on her recovery soon.

It was a good day for Adidas, the race’s main sponsor. Tigst Assefa, Bedatu Hirpa and Dera Dida, the women’s top three, all ran in the brand’s Techfit Endurance Suit, the full-body suit Adidas brought to the London Marathon in April.

Adidas says the suit improves running economy by more than 1 percent, worth roughly 48 seconds in a two-hour marathon. The company attributes that gain less to aerodynamics than to laser-cut polyurethane bands that stabilize the pelvis and hips, slowing the breakdown in form that sets in late in a race.

The evidence for it is still mixed. In London, Yomif Kejelcha wore the suit to run 1:59:41, while Sabastian Sawe, who had trained in it, chose half-tights and a singlet on race day and won in a world record 1:59:30. We looked at the suit, and why many elite runners have been reluctant to wear it, in more detail here.

The women’s podium ceremony has gone ahead without its winner. Tigst Assefa is still in the medical tent, where she was taken after Haile Gebrselassie helped her from the finish line, and she was not able to join the ceremony.

We will update here as soon as there is news on her condition.

Guye Adola came to Berlin as one of four men in the field with a personal best inside 2:04 and leaves with his second title here and a new best of 2:02:50. With Sabastian Sawe and Kenenisa Bekele both out injured, the race was open, and Adola settled it with a 14:21 split from 30K to 35K that no one could match. Gemechu Dida held on for second, and Gabriel Geay recovered from being dropped before 35K to take third.

Assefa ran the women’s race well clear of the rest, on or near world record pace until the last two kilometers, and still finished with a course record and a personal best. Behind her, Bedatu Hirpa beat Dera Dida by two seconds in the sprint for second.

Thank you for following along with us this morning, and thanks to Jessy Carveth for her reporting from Berlin.

Assefa’s 2:11:04 does not move her up the all-time list, but it brings her much closer to the top of it. She was already third with the 2:11:53 she ran here in 2023, after Fotyen Tesfay ran 2:10:51 on her debut in Barcelona in March. By each athlete’s best, the fastest women in history now stand as follows:

1. Ruth Chepngetich (Kenya), 2:09:56, Chicago, 2024
2. Fotyen Tesfay (Ethiopia), 2:10:51, Barcelona, 2026
3. Tigst Assefa (Ethiopia), 2:11:04, Berlin, 2026
4. Sifan Hassan (Netherlands), 2:13:44, Chicago, 2023
5. Joyciline Jepkosgei (Kenya), 2:14:00, Valencia, 2025

Assefa is now 13 seconds behind Tesfay and 68 seconds off the record.

The mark Assefa came within 68 seconds of today remains Ruth Chepngetich’s 2:09:56 from Chicago in 2024. Chepngetich is serving a three-year ban after a sample collected on March 14, 2025, tested positive for the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. Because that sample was taken five months after Chicago, the Athletics Integrity Unit left her earlier results in place, and the record with them.

It is an unfortunate position for the sport. The two fastest marathons run by women since that sample, Tesfay’s in Barcelona and Assefa’s here, are both measured against a time set by an athlete who is now suspended.

For 40 kilometers Assefa ran exactly the race the record required. She was about 10 seconds up on world record pace at 40K and needed 6:46 for the last 2.195 kilometers to finish under 2:09:56.

She took 8:04, because somewhere after 40K her stride shortened into a visible limp, and she covered the final stretch along Unter den Linden and through the Brandenburg Gate at more than 3:40 per kilometer, against the 3:05 she had held all morning. She lost 78 seconds to record pace in those last few minutes.

Her 2:11:04 is still a personal best and a course record, 49 seconds faster than the 2:11:53 she ran here in 2023.

Bedatu Hirpa has outsprinted Dera Dida for second, 2:16:53 to 2:16:55. Dida had been a second ahead at 40K. Bekelech Gudeta came through for fourth in 2:18:58, three seconds ahead of Alemitu Tariku.

Assefa could not stay on her feet after crossing the line, and the man who helped her up was Haile Gebrselassie. The Ethiopian, who set two world records on this course in 2007 and 2008, lifted her and walked her to the medical tent.

For a runner who had spent more than two hours on the edge of a world record, it was a moving end to her race, in the care of one of the athletes who made Berlin the fastest marathon in the world.

After running with a 10-second cushion at 40 kilometers, the Ethiopian began to slow and visibly limp in the final minutes, missing the world record by just over a minute. It was still a huge personal best and a course record, and it now stands as the third-fastest marathon in history.

Read our full report on Assefa’s win

Adola’s winning margin was 29 seconds. Getaneh Molla and Selemon Barega finished three seconds apart for fourth and fifth, and Shura Kitata was eighth in 2:06:04.

Assefa passes 40K in 2:03:00, about 10 seconds inside world record pace with 2.2 kilometers to go. Dera Dida and Bedatu Hirpa are together in second, more than six and a half minutes behind.

Guye Adola has won the Berlin Marathon for the second time, five years after his first title, and in a personal best of 2:02:50. The Ethiopian left Selemon Barega and Gemechu Dida after 30K, covering the next five kilometers in 14:21, and no one came back to him. Gemechu Dida held on for second in 2:03:19. Gabriel Geay, dropped from the lead group before 35K, recovered to finish third in 2:03:59.

Read our full report on Adola’s win

Adola is through 40K in 1:56:24 and still gaining. Gemechu Dida is 18 seconds behind him. Gabriel Geay, who was dropped from the lead group before 35K, has worked his way back to third and passed Selemon Barega.

Tigst Assefa reaches 35K in 1:47:32, about 14 seconds inside world record pace and on course for 2:09:38. She covered the last 5K in 15:17. Bedatu Hirpa and Dera Dida are running together in second, 5:10 behind, with Alemitu Tariku four seconds further back.

Guye Adola breaks away and comes through 35K solo in 1:41:18

With just over 20 minutes of running left, Ethiopia’s Guye Adola has broken away from the rest of his competitors as the pace has seen a significant acceleration over the last 15 minutes.

As she sits closely behind her pacer, who is doing a phenomenal job, she continues to check her watch every few seconds. She is getting slightly faster with every kilometer as her projected time continues to creep down with just over 30 minutes of running to go.

Tigst Assefa comes through 30K in 1:32:15, with a projected finish time of 2:09:45, inside world record pace

Gabriel Geay, one of the race favorites, has been dropped from the lead group.

There is a slight incline around KM 25 on the course, and it was there that Assefa’s projected time slipped outside WR pace. However, what goes up, must come down, and she has come back inside that WR pace.

Guye Adola, Selemon Barega and Gemechu Dida lead through 30K together in 1:26:57. Asefa Boki, Andamlak Belihu, Erick Sang and Gabriel Geay are all within four seconds of them. Getaneh Molla is 17 seconds back and Shura Kitata 38.