3 Takeaways from Tigist Assefa’s New Marathon Record
The first takeout from the excellent marathon performance is that the official time of 2hr 11min 53 is wrong. The image above clearly shows Assefa pressing the stop button at 2:12:10, I’m surprised that no one else has noticed that. The time was so fast that this will still be a world record even after the timing controversy subsides and the time is revised downwards.
Next, she used the new £400 adidas super shoes. It’s widely reported that the shoes she was wearing were the adidas Adizero Pro Evo 1 shoes. These have similar performance foam and carbon to other super shoes except the adidas trainers are significantly lighter than all the competition. Whatever you might think about the merits of foam or carbon, lighter shoes are definitely faster – and that’s according to physics rather than according to me (other things being equal).
Finally, I was trying to make out what her watch was. It looks like an old, red Garmin Forerunner 225 but I’m not sure. What do you think? Either way, it wasn’t any of Garmin’s latest, greatest tech which just goes to prove that performance kit that makes a difference tends not to be electronics.
Women’s World Record Progression (Marathon)
The Women’s record shows sporadic fairly notable drops in the finish time since the 1960s often reflecting standout individual performances such as those by Paula Radcliffe that stood intact for over a decade.
However, I would say that 26-year-old, Assefa’s demolishing of the record truly stands out as an unbelievably good achievement. Not only is the improvement from the previous record significant at over 2 minutes but it comes at a time when women’s long-distance running is properly competitive. Made even more impressive by the fact that she was originally an 800m runner at the Rio Olympics where she finished 20th
OK, Berlin’s course has demonstrated itself to be a great one for world records but you have to wonder how much of this record also comes down to the shoes (and the Garmin). Good female marathon athletes have obviously been around for many years now but so have earlier supershoes like the Nikes. Maybe the adidas PRO Evo represents an almost literal leap forward in running shoe tech?
What else could make such a difference? Thoughts below.
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£20 says she trims it on her strava! ????
It also appears that she had a Stryd on the shoes at some point during the beginning of the race and…no more Stryd in the end.
Either she lost it, or ditch it has now a Stryd should account for 10% of the shoe mass 😀
It’s a Garmin 235 , I would bet
that’s what I originally thought. If you check the video and some of the other images the shape of the display doesn’t seem to be a 235 which has the horizonal bits across the top and bottom of the display.
Then there’s the thick red colour around the complete edge which I couldn’t tie to any Garmin model and which left me confused.
I will lose sleep over this. Someone please help me out. 😉
A Garmin Forerunner 220 or 225 has a red circle around the edge, and that was my first guess when I saw her watch on TV, but it could also be some obscure other brand with similar design.
yep, you got it
that looks a much closer visual match. thank you
i shall sleep easy tonight
You’re not really serious about that one, are you? Are you kidding? 😀
EVERYONE can see that the finish time is 2:11:53. Ms Assefa presses her Garmin far too late, namely after the finish time has long since been measured (Watch out for the mat under the finish gate.).
only a little bit serious, in places, perhaps, maybe
Oh, now I know what you mean. 😀 The time at the bottom right of the photo … You should know that nowadays photos usually lie 😉
In the video the situation is clear.
yes, i hope she pressed the GO button before crossing the start line or she might also face a DQ. Obvisouly the Garmin time is more important that soem random organisation’s trackside clock.
You should check your facts before posting about “time controversy”.
the camera doesn’t lie
I still use my Garmin Forerunner 225 and I would bet that she was using it. The FR 220 is a little bit thinner (non OHR)
What watch was Eliud Kipchoge wearing? It looked like an E.K edition of the Pace 3!
i couldnt tell but i would guess pace 2 or pace 3 because of his association with the company
it defo had the green and red buttons. Sure the Pace 2 has that but the Pace 3 I am not sure …
My personal opinion is her watch has nothing to do with it. She could’ve ran without a watch, and they were many other Atlas with the same type of shoes. And regarding her time, she should’ve been wearing a chip I believe she’s a good runner a good future