Berlin Marathon winner limped to finish line after rupturing Achilles tendon chasing world mark

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 two kilometres 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 two hours nine minutes 56 seconds from Chicago in 2024.

It transpired she 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 kilometre 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 of the issue at the 40 km mark. "She completely destroyed the tendon at the end, because running without the tendon — I mean the last 500 metres 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 two kilometres 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,