Berlin Marathon winner Tigst Assefa ‘completely destroyed’ her Achilles chasing world record

BERLIN (AP) — Berlin Marathon winner Tigst Assefa “completely destroyed” her right Achilles tendon trying to regain her world record.

Assefa was on well on course to beat Ruth Chepng’etich’s world record with 2 kilometers remaining in Sunday’s race when she suddenly began limping with what appeared to be cramps. She grimaced and kept running in visible pain before ultimately finishing 68 seconds behind Chepng’etich’s mark of 2:09:56 from Chicago in 2024.

It transpired Assefa suffered a “complete rupture of the right Achilles tendon,” her representative Gianni Demadonna told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Demadonna said the Ethiopian runner had been in pain from the 31st kilometer but decided to continue running before the injury struck at the 40K mark.

“She was no longer able to run, because when she was going to put her foot on the ground she had no power,” Demadonna said. “She completely destroyed the tendon at the end, because running without the tendon — I mean the last 500 meters maybe she ran without the tendon, you know, only with the heel, so that was a disaster because maybe (if) she had stopped, (it) was not so bad, but she ran 2 kilometers with the problem.”

The 29-year-old Assefa still ran the third fastest time ever in 2:11:04. It’s her third victory in Berlin after 2022 and 2023, but she had been pushing for another world record after her record time of 2:11:53 in 2023.

Chepng’etich lowered that mark by nearly two minutes the following year, but was banned for three years in 2025 after admitting a doping violation. The Kenyan runner’s record still stands.

Assefa was on course to smash Chepng’etich’s record on Sunday.

“She was on to run 2:09:30, 2:09:40, so that was the goal, and she still had 8 minutes (to run) the last 2.2 kilometers. That is amazing,” Demadonna said.

Assefa collapsed after crossing the line and was attended to by a medic as well as compatriot and marathon great Haile Gebrselassie, among others. She skipped the post-race formalities and was flown to Munich before undergoing what Demadonna called “very complex surgery” on her ankle on Monday at a hospital in Murnau, a town near the Austrian border southwest of Munich.

A long road to recovery

Demadonna, who was on his way back home to Italy after leaving Assefa in the hospital, said she will see another doctor in Munich on Thursday to see how the surgery went and to start her rehabilitation. He said she will need to use crutches for around six weeks by which time she will have started exercises for movement of the tendon.

“After starting walking and bicycle, maybe (she can) start running in three months, so I think seven months to compete in another marathon, maybe London Marathon 2027 at the end of April, but difficult to say now,” Demadonna said. “We have to stay patient and see what the doctor will say.”

He added that Assefa “is very sad, but what can we do? She knows that it’s a long way to recover, but the doctor said, ‘don’t worry, you can recover.’ So we will see.”

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