Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa celebrates as she crosses the end line to win the ladies’s division of the Berlin Marathon in world report time in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023.

Markus Schreiber/AP

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Markus Schreiber/AP

Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa celebrates as she crosses the end line to win the ladies’s division of the Berlin Marathon in world report time in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023.

Markus Schreiber/AP

Ethiopian runner Tigst Assefa set a brand new ladies’s world report on the BMW Berlin Marathon on Sunday, smashing the earlier high time by greater than two minutes.

Assefa, 26, crossed the finish line on the Brandenburg Gate with a time of two:11:53.

The earlier world report had been held by Brigid Kosgei, who accomplished a 2019 marathon in Chicago in 2:14:04.

“I didn’t expect to run this fast that is to say to break 2:12, but it is the result of hard work,” Assefa said in quotes offered by the marathon.

“As for being now a favourite for the Olympic Marathon next year, it is up to the National Committee to select me for the team,” she added.

Assefa also won last year’s Berlin marathon with a time of two:15:37, which was then the third-fastest time ever.

On the boys’s facet, Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge clinched his fifth marathon victory in Berlin, with a time of two:02:42.

“I always learn from every victory. I am very happy to win for the fifth time in Berlin,” Kipchoge said in a publish on the marathon’s Facebook web page.

Kipchoge mentioned he’ll use what he discovered from these victories in his preparations for subsequent yr’s summer season Olympics, that are scheduled to happen in Paris in July and August.