The 52nd BMW Berlin Marathon ended with two Ethiopian winners and one very near miss. Tigst Assefa won the women’s race in 2:11:04, a course record, after running inside world record pace for 40 km. Guye Adola won the men’s race in a personal best of 2:02:50, nine years after his Berlin debut.
Results at a glance
Women
| Runner | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tigst Assefa (ETH) | 2:11:04 |
| 2 | Bedatu Hirpa (ETH) | 2:16:53 |
| 3 | Dera Dida (ETH) | 2:16:55 |
| 4 | Bekelech Gudeta (ETH) | 2:18:58 |
| 5 | Alemitu Tariku (ETH) | 2:19:01 |
Men
| Runner | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guye Adola (ETH) | 2:02:50 |
| 2 | Gemechu Dida (ETH) | 2:03:19 |
| 3 | Gabriel Geay (TAN) | 2:03:59 |
| 4 | Getaneh Molla (ETH) | 2:04:55 |
| 5 | Selemon Barega (ETH) | 2:04:58 |
Around 56,000 athletes from 162 countries took part across the race weekend. It was a sunny, mostly calm morning, but warm for fast running, around 20 °C.
Women’s race: 40 km of world record pace
Assefa ran away from the women’s field in the first 5 km and spent the rest of the morning racing the clock. The target was the world record, Ruth Chepngetich’s 2:09:56 from Chicago 2024.
| Point | Assefa | Against world record pace |
|---|---|---|
| 10 km | 30:48 | level |
| Halfway | 1:04:58 | 1 s ahead |
| 30 km | 1:32:15 | 8 s ahead |
| 35 km | 1:47:32 | 15 s ahead |
| 40 km | 2:03:00 | 10 s ahead |
| Finish | 2:11:04 | 68 s behind |
Up to 40 km she averaged about 3:04 per kilometre. The last 2.195 km took her 8:04, about 3:40 per kilometre, as she started limping in the closing kilometre. She needed just under 7 minutes for that stretch to take the record.
She still won by almost six minutes and improved her own course record of 2:11:53 from 2023. It’s her third Berlin win, after 2022 and 2023. Assefa went to hospital after the finish; early reports mention a possible tendon injury. We hope it turns out to be nothing serious.
Behind her, the race for second came down to the last metres: Bedatu Hirpa beat Dera Dida by two seconds.
Men’s race: patience, then 30 km
The men ran together for a long time. Nine were still in the lead group at halfway, reached in 1:01:01. Adola moved to the front by 30 km, and between 30 and 35 km he ran 14:21, about 2:52 per kilometre. By 35 km he had nine seconds on Gemechu Dida, and by the finish, 29.
For the 35-year-old it’s a second Berlin title after 2021, and a personal best. His previous best, 2:03:46, came on his marathon debut here in 2017, when he finished second to Eliud Kipchoge.
What the rest of us can take from it
A 2:02 or a 2:11 has little to do with most race plans. But the shape of the race does:
- The marathon is decided after 35 km. Assefa was ahead of record pace at 40 km and still lost 68 seconds to it in the last two kilometres. Time “in the bank” from the first half isn’t safe. It’s the pace you can still run at the end that counts. Our negative split guide has split tables from 3:00 to 5:00.
- The winning move came late. Adola didn’t break away at halfway. He waited until 30 km, when the others were tired, and then ran his fastest 5 km of the day.
- Even the winners slowed down. The men’s lead group went through halfway in 1:01:01; Adola’s second half was 1:01:49. On a warm day, a slightly slower second half isn’t a failure, and a controlled first half still matters.
If you ran today
Congratulations. A few things for the coming days:
- Get your race into iRunning. Import the run from Apple Health, or as a GPX or FIT file from a Garmin or COROS, and look at your 5 km splits: where did the pace start to slip? Our guide to sharing your marathon finish shows how, and how to turn the route into a video with Share › Video.
- Take the next two weeks easy. Walk first, run easy later. We go through it day by day in After the Marathon: Your First Two Weeks.
- Wait before picking the next race. Your legs will feel fine long before they are.
Results and splits are from live race coverage on 27 September 2026 and may still change. The official results are at bmw-berlin-marathon.com.