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 · 1 min read · United Kingdom 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 2026 London Marathon in 2:15:41, lowering her own women's-only world record by nine seconds — the same record she'd set on the same course in 2025, at 2:15:50. "Women's-only" is a real, separate category from the outright women's world record (which is faster, because those races allow male pacers); Assefa's mark is specifically the fastest a woman has ever run against only female competitors.

The depth of the race was as remarkable as the winning time: Kenya's Hellen Obiri ran 2:15:53 for second and Joyciline Jepkosgei ran 2:15:55 for third, meaning three women broke 2:16 in the same race for the first time ever.

Assefa's own reaction was simple: "Thank you to God. I screamed when I finished because I knew I was breaking the world record."

Coming on the same day as Sabastian Sawe's sub-two-hour men's run, it made for one of the fastest marathon days London has ever staged — a women's field pushing its own record deeper at the same time the men's race broke a barrier that had stood for decades.