Men's
MARATHON
World Record
2:03:59
Haile Gebrselassie
September 28th 2008
Berlin Marathon
Berlin, Germany
Fourteen years after breaking his first world record the Ethiopian maestro became the first man in history to dip below 2:04 with a sensational performance on the streets of Berlin.
Gebrselassie clocked 2:03:59 to land his third straight Berlin Marathon title, lowering the mark of 2:04:26 he set in the race 12 months ago.
The 35-year-old Ethiopian, who set the first of his 24 world records and world bests in the 5000m in 1994, was rewarded with the world record breaking time after deciding not to compete in the marathon at the Olympic Games in Beijing the previous month because of concerns over heat and pollution.
Women's
MARATHON
World Record
spikesmag player that shows WRecords
2:15:25
Paula Radcliffe
April 13th 2003
London Marathon
London, England
Paula first tasted international success in the junior race at the 1992 World Cross Country Championships when she beat China’s Wang Junxia, the current 10,000m world record-holder, to take gold in Boston.
A highly respectable track career followed during the 1990s, but she made her big breakthrough at the 2001 World Cross Country Championships, taking home a title that she would successfully defend the following year.
In 2002 she moved up to the marathon and proved an instant hit, winning in London and Chicago — where she set a world record of 2:17:18. She went from strength to strength in 2003 and set the current world record in London, a jaw-dropping 2:15:25 slicing almost two minutes off her previous mark.