Tigst Assefa Breaks Her Own Women's-Only Marathon World Record
2:15:41 at the same London course where she set it last year, and two other women went under 2:16 for the first time ever, right behind her.
By Miles Ashworth · 27 Apr 2026 · 3 min read · Australia edition
Tigst Assefa at the 2024 London Marathon. Photo: Katie Chan, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).Ethiopia's Tigst Assefa won the London Marathon on Sunday 26 April in 2:15:41, lowering her own women-only world record by nine seconds. She had set the previous mark, 2:15:50, on the same course a year earlier.
Her reaction was simple. "Thank you to God. I screamed when I finished because I knew I was breaking the world record."
What "women-only" means
Women-only is a separate record category from the outright women's world record, and the difference is pacing. In mixed races, elite women can run behind male pacemakers, who shelter them from the wind and hold an even pace all the way. In a women-only race, such as London's elite women's start, every pacemaker and competitor is female.
That makes a real difference to times, which is why World Athletics recognises the two separately. The outright record, run in a mixed race, is 2:09:56, set by Ruth Chepngetich in Chicago in 2024. Assefa's 2:15:41 is the fastest a woman has ever run against women only.
The closest finish London has seen
The depth of the race was as remarkable as the winning time. Kenya's Hellen Obiri was second in 2:15:53 and her compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei third in 2:15:55. It was the first time three women had broken 2:16 in the same race, and the 14 seconds from first to third was the tightest top-three margin in the history of London's women's race.
The three went through halfway together in 1:06:12, which was on course for something special. They then slowed a little, running every 5km split after 20km in over 16 minutes, and the race came down to who could hold on over the final miles. Assefa could.
Behind them, Ethiopia's Degitu Azimeraw was fourth in 2:19:13. Scotland's Eilish McColgan was the leading British woman in seventh with 2:24:51, and Rose Harvey ninth in 2:26:14.
Who Tigst Assefa is
Assefa was born in December 1996 in Holeta, Ethiopia, and did not start as a marathon runner. She was an 800m runner first and represented Ethiopia over two laps at the Rio Olympics in 2016. An Achilles injury pushed her towards longer distances, and she made her marathon debut in March 2022.
The move worked almost at once. Later in 2022 she ran 2:15:37 to win Berlin, then the third-fastest women's time ever. In Berlin a year later she ran 2:11:53, taking more than two minutes off Brigid Kosgei's world record. At the Paris Olympics in 2024 she won silver, three seconds behind Sifan Hassan after one of the most dramatic finishes of the Games. In London in 2025 she set the women-only record, and now she has improved it again.
A record-breaking day
Assefa's run came on the same morning that Sabastian Sawe ran 1:59:30 in the men's race, the first legal marathon under two hours, with Yomif Kejelcha also under two hours in second. Switzerland's Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner won the wheelchair races.
It was also the biggest London Marathon ever held. 59,830 people finished, a Guinness World Record for the most finishers at a marathon, from a ballot that drew more than 1.1 million applications. On a day that will be remembered for the men's time, the women's race produced its own record and its closest finish ever.
