26-Apr-2026 – London Marathon – 2:15:41 – Adidas AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 3
Date of birth: 3-Dec-1996
Nationality: Ethiopian
Women-Only World Record duration: 3 days (as of 29 April 2026)
The athlete:
By this stage of her career, Tigst Assefa is no stranger to bring at the front of the pack in elite marathon competition. The 2026 London Marathon was no different. Even with Sifan Hassan pulling out due to injury Assefa faced Hellen Obiri, twice the winner for the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon, and former half marathon world record holder Joyciline Jepkosgei. Assefa was on track to break the 2:13 barrier with 25 kilometres down, but said later that she let Obiri into the lead and waited until the final moments to surge past. Crossing the line to win, she managed to shave nine seconds from her women-only marathon world record.
When asked later about her performance, Assefa commented simply that she had trained hard and reaped the benefits of these efforts. Despite being overshadowed by Sabastian Sawe breaking the two-hour barrier while setting the new men’s marathon world record, it is still an incredible achievement and cements Assefa as one of the dominant forces in women’s distance running. In future events where male pacers are available for the entire race, like the Berlin Marathon, there is every possibility that Assefa may again challenge for the outright women’s marathon world record.
The shoes:
Just like Sawe, Assefa also wore the latest distance running weapon from Adidas, the AdiZero Adios Pro Evo 3. You can read more about it in my article on Sawe’s marathon world record, however in short the shoe represents a remarkable step forward in the development of supershoes. Weighing less than 100 grams, it features a U-shaped carbon-fibre plate that goes along one side of the shoe to the back and then along the other side. This is notably different from existing supershoes which have had the plate underneath the foot itself.
References:
https://www.olympics.com/en/news/tigist-assefa-london-marathon-world-record-win
https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/news/a71129368/tigst-assefa-2026-london-marathon/
https://news.adidas.com/running/adidas-unveils-its-first-sub-100-gram-supershoe–the-adizero-adios-pro-evo-3/s/ded7b6a2-952a-4246-b675-4129f78787c4
https://runrepeat.com/adidas-adizero-adios-pro-evo-3
https://www.roadtrailrun.com/2026/04/adidas-adizero-adios-pro-evo-3.html
https://believeintherun.com/shoe-reviews/adidas-adizero-prime-x-evo-review/