On Sunday, September 24th, Eliud Kipchoge clinched his fifth Berlin Marathon triumph, while Tigist Assefa shattered the women's world record by over two minutes.

Competing for the first time since his sixth-place finish at the Boston Marathon in April, the 38-year-old double Olympic champion, Kipchoge, crossed the finish line unaccompanied with a time of 2:02:42.

Vincent Kipkemboi, also from Kenya, secured the second spot, trailing Kipchoge by 31 seconds, while Ethiopia's Tadese Takele followed, finishing 11 seconds behind Kipchoge.

In the initial three kilometers, Kipchoge, Derseh Kindie, and three pacemakers swiftly distanced themselves from the rest of the runners, while last year's London Marathon champion Amos Kipruto found himself in the second group.

At the 10km mark, the frontrunners had already established a lead of 16 seconds over the world record pace. This lead extended to as much as 23 seconds by the 16km point, although it had reduced to 13 seconds when they reached the halfway mark in 1:00:22.

At the 26km mark, Kipchoge momentarily broke his focused rhythm and had a conversation with the last remaining pacemaker, Hillary Chepkwony, as they fell behind the world record pace.

With slightly more than 10km remaining, Kindie began to lag behind the pace and eventually came to a halt, with Chepkwony doing the same after exchanging fist bumps with his training partner from the NN Running Team.

In the final stages of the race, the pursuing group did make up ground and caught sight of Kipchoge in the distance, but they couldn't pose a significant challenge to the Kenyan champion.

"I've learned lessons. I have won but I've not broken the world record. Every race is a learning lesson." Kipchoge said after the race "It didn't go as expected but that's how sport is"

In the women's competition, last year's unexpected victor Tigist Assefa and her Ethiopian counterpart Workenesh Edesa pulled ahead of the pack after 15 kilometers.

The 29-year-old athlete, closely following her male pacemaker Azmera Gebru, continued to extend her lead as she approached an extraordinary achievement.

"It's the result of hard work which I've put in over the last year," Assefa said after the race. "I didn't expect to break the record by such a margin, but I did think I could break it."