27-Apr-2025 – London Marathon – 2:15:50 – Adidas AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 1 V2
Date of birth: 3-Dec-1996
Nationality: Ethiopian
Women-Only World Record duration: 4 months, 5 days (as of 1 September 2025)
The athlete:
After losing Olympic gold in an enthralling sprint finish, Tigst Assefa was looking to perform strongly on her return to the London Marathon, having missed out on victory the year before.
With some of the warmest conditions on record for the race, Assefa would have been forgiven for taking a more cautious approach. Instead, she lead the charge from the outset. The leading group would pass halfway in 1:06:40, almost one minute ahead of the planned 1:07:30 agreed to with pacers before the race.
Despite the heat increasing steadily in the later stages of the race, Assefa was able to put in bursts of speed to put distance between herself and the remaining competition. Assefa had trained for all outcomes, including the possible repeat of her sprint duel with Sifan Hassan at the Paris Olympics.
She later said the warm conditions suited her, backing up this optimism with victory and the new women’s only marathon world record. Assefa was ecstatic with her win, telling reporters that her next goal was to try and recapture the outright women’s marathon world record.
The shoes:
Despite having the Adidas AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 2 on offer, Assefa understandably preferred the original version with which she set the outright women’s marathon world record, albeit slightly updated and therefore referred to by World Athletics as the AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 1 v2.
As you can read about in my article about her outright women’s marathon world record from 2023, it represents the ultimate evolution of the carbon-fibre rod concept Adidas first introduced in 2020 under the name of EnergyRods.
Coming in at only 138 grams due to specially tailored Thermoplastic Polyester Elastomer dubbed Lightstrike Pro, it is one of the lightest supershoes on the market. Despite Adidas claiming durability of one marathon distance, some have found the shoes effective for as much as four times this distance.
References:
Philipp Pley via email
https://news.adidas.com/running/adidas-launches-adizero-adios-pro-evo-1—the-future-of-racing.-at-its-lightest-/s/92fc11e6-105a-4c84-a196-81eca4044ad9
https://www.roadtrailrun.com/2023/09/adidas-adizero-pro-evo-1-preview-at.html
https://runrepeat.com/guides/running-shoe-foams-guide
https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-label-road-races/news/tigist-assefa-women-only-world-marathon-record-london
https://www.letsrun.com/news/2025/04/2025-london-marathon-tigst-assefa-wins-war-of-attrition-holds-on-to-break-womens-only-wr-in-21550/
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/apr/27/london-marathon-2025-sabastian-sawe-tigst-assefa-alex-yee
https://www.espn.com.au/olympics/trackandfield/story/_/id/44881726/assefa-sets-record-london-marathon-win-sawe-takes-men-race
https://runningmagazine.ca/sections/runs-races/ethiopias-tigst-assefa-breaks-women-only-world-record-at-london-marathon/
https://believeintherun.com/shoe-reviews/adidas-adizero-adios-pro-evo-1-review/
https://runrepeat.com/guides/running-shoe-foams-guide
https://run.outsideonline.com/gear/road-shoes/adidas-adizero-adios-pro-evo1-durability/