Who won the 2026 Berlin Marathon?

Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia won the women's race in a course record of 2:11:04 and Guye Adola of Ethiopia won the men's race in 2:02:50, on 27 September 2026.

What happened to Tigst Assefa?

She ruptured her right Achilles tendon near the end of the race, had surgery on 28 September and is expected to be out for about seven months.

Berlin Marathon 2026: Assefa and Adola win

Ethiopia owned the streets of Berlin on Sunday 27 September 2026. Tigst Assefa won the women's race in a course record of 2:11:04, and Guye Adola took the men's title in a personal best of 2:02:50.

Assefa went out chasing the world record of 2:09:56. She passed halfway in 1:04:57 and was still on record pace at 40 kilometres, but pain in her right Achilles began around 31km and the tendon ruptured near the end. She finished, collapsed and was helped by Haile Gebrselassie.

“She completely destroyed the tendon at the end.”
Gianni Demadonna, Assefa's representative

She had surgery in Murnau, near Munich, on 28 September and faces about seven months out. It was her third Berlin win, after 2022 and 2023, and her time improved her own course record by 49 seconds.

Adola breaks clear

In the men's race six runners passed halfway together in 1:01:01. Adola broke away between 30 and 35 kilometres and never looked back, winning his second Berlin title four years after his first. Defending champion Sabastian Sawe of Kenya did not start through injury.

2026 Berlin Marathon podiums
Place	Women	Men
1	Tigst Assefa (ETH) 2:11:04	Guye Adola (ETH) 2:02:50
2	Bedatu Hirpa (ETH) 2:16:53	Gemechu Dida (ETH) 2:03:19
3	Dera Dida (ETH) 2:16:55	Gabriel Geay (TAN) 2:03:59

“The race was good, but also tough.”
Guye Adola

The splits and the history

Assefa went through 10km in 30:48 and 30km in 1:32:19, and at 35km she was on course for about 2:09:36. Behind the Ethiopian top five, Kenya's Pascaline Jelagat was sixth in 2:20:23. In the men's race Ethiopia's Getaneh Molla and Selemon Barega were fourth and fifth. Eliud Kipchoge's course record of 2:01:09 from 2022 still stands.

The two winning times add up to 4:13:54, the second-fastest combined total at any marathon, behind only Chicago 2024.

Ethiopians filled the first five places in the women's race. More than 56,000 runners from 162 countries took part. See more African results in this week's African Sports News.

Reporting by the SitesNG Sports Desk, based on reports from BMW Berlin Marathon, WatchAthletics, AP, LetsRun.com, Marathon Handbook. Published 27 September 2026 in the African Sports News weekly edition of 30 September 2026.