Tigst Assefa and Guye Adola Take Both Berlin Marathon Titles for Ethiopia

Ethiopia took both titles at the Berlin Marathon on Sunday. Tigst Assefa won the women's race in 2:11:04, and Guye Adola won the men's in a personal best of 2:02:50.

Assefa led from the early stages and stayed on course to challenge the women's world record for most of the race, before narrowly missing it. She was running injured, BBC Sport reported.

A double, on the fastest course there is

Berlin is the flattest of the World Marathon Majors and the course where most of the modern record progression has happened, which is why a near-miss there carries more weight than a win elsewhere. Assefa controlled the race rather than chased it, and the record fell short by a margin small enough to be attributable to the injury rather than to the pace.

Adola's 2:02:50 is a personal best, which for a runner of his standing is the more surprising of the two results. Two titles on the same morning, on that course, is the kind of day that decides how a federation's next four years are funded.

The export nobody books as one

Ethiopian distance running is the country's most durable piece of international brand equity, and one of the few that requires no foreign currency to produce. Prize money, appearance fees and sponsorship contracts signed after mornings like this one are earnings repatriated by individuals rather than by an export sector — invisible in the trade account, entirely real in the balance of payments.

It is also the most reliable inbound marketing the country has. Every training-camp story filed from Bekoji or Sululta is advertising for a tourism industry that buys very little of its own.

Open

Neither the winners' next race nor the extent of Assefa's injury has been announced.

Sources: BBC Sport, 27 September 2026, Birr Metrics, 27 September 2026