The women’s marathon recorded another record with Ethiopia’s Fotyen Tesfay storming to second on the world all-time list by running a 2:10:51 marathon debut at the Zurich Barcelona Marathon – a World Athletics Elite Label road race.
Tesfay who just turned 28-years started the race as the third-fastest women’s half marathon runner in history and finished it by surpassing that feat over double the distance, crosing the finish line within a minute of the world marathon record.
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games where she finished seventh and eighth at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 in the 10,000m, Tesfay started her marathon journey by covering the first 10km in 31:05 in Barcelona while being boosted by her two male pacesetters
The trio picked up the pace and hit the halfway mark in 1:05:05, forging on to reach 30km in 1:32:00. Tesfay’s pace saw her winning the race by close to eight minutes ahead of Kenya’s Joan Jepkosgei Kiplimo, while Uganda’s Abel Chelangat won the men’s race in 2:04:57.
Her target was the world record of 2:09:56 set by Ruth Chepngetich in Chicago in 2024 and Tesfay looked determined as she went through 40km in 2:03:31. While she was unable to dip under 2:10 this time, Tesfay was rewarded with the fastest ever women’s marathon debut, an Ethiopian record and the second-quickest performance in history.
Tefsay said, “My plan was to attack the world record but today there was a lot of wind, I was not able to push in the last part of the race. Today I did not succeed, but in the next marathon I would like to try for the world record.”
Kenyan Jepkosgei Kiplimo finished second in 2:18:42 and Ethiopia’s Zeineba Yimer was third in 2:18:49.