BERLIN: Berlin Marathon winner Tigst Assefa has undergone surgery in Munich on Monday after finishing Sunday’s race with a torn Achilles, her manager confirmed.
Assefa was on track to break the women’s marathon record until the 35-kilometre mark, when she slowed slightly and was clearly struggling with a leg injury.
The 29-year-old Ethiopian limped across the finish line and collapsed but still re corded 2:11:04, the third-best mark ever achieved by a woman over the distance.
Assefa’s manager, Gianni Demadonna, confirmed to AFP she had undergone surgery on the horrific injury at a Bavarian clinic but had finished the race with ‘a complete rupture of the tendon’.
‘The tendon was completely gone when she ran the last two kilometres.
‘She started to feel some pain after 31km. And after practically 40km, she felt more, more, more.
‘And at the last two kilometres, the tendon was losing all the fibres step-by-step and was completely torn at the end. She was not able to move, to do anything.’-AFP