There are certain world records that will have special significance when they are eventually broken: the women’s 400m, 800m, 3000m, and of course, the marathon are among them… for hopefully obvious reasons.

On Sunday morning in Berlin, Tigst Assefa was so painfully close to wiping away one of those marks. Ruth Chepng’etich’s 2:09:56, one we’d all like to say good riddance to from the books, was well within reach. Assefa hit the halfway mark in 64:57 before continuing a slow and steady acceleration.

Over the past five years, Assefa has a strong claim as the greatest marathoner in the world, and her fifth World Marathon Major victory (third in Berlin), only further solidifies her position at the top. But with less than two kilometers left in the race and still surrounded by a supportive pack of male pacers, a rupture of her Achilles tendon derailed any plans for post-race celebratory beers atop the podium.

Despite grimacing through the final mile-plus with a pronounced and obviously painful limp, Assefa still won the race by almost six minutes. And this was not a weak field! The second and third place finishers, Bedatu Hirpa and Dera Dida, are now the 21st and 22nd fastest women all time, having both dipped under 2:17—still 90 seconds ahead of the American record.

Willis Reed. Kerri Strug. Kobe Bryant. Curt Schilling. Tiger Woods.

Athletes become legends when they perform under distress, and few can hold a candle to the achievement and grit that Assefa demonstrated in Berlin. If instead of being born an Ethiopian distance runner, Assefa played quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, then there would already be dozens of statues being commissioned across the state of Texas.

Fortunately, every elite athlete knows there is no better place to suffer an Achilles injury than in Germany. Unfortunately, eccentric calf raises won’t be enough to fix this injury. Her recovery is slated to be more than six months following the immediate surgery, however, Assefa’s run will go down as one of the greatest sporting achievements in history among those of us who have ever experienced even the slightest bit of tendonitis.

The thing about near misses like this one is that Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 London Marathon, Eliud Kipchoge’s Breaking2, or Faith Kipyegon’s 1500m at the Monaco Diamond League in 2022, were all once painfully close, as well… but temporary.

It wasn’t quite the same level of heroism for Guye Adola, but he also had a pretty memorable day. The 35-year-old was the oldest athlete in the elite field, and he used his hard-earned wisdom to secure a second Berlin victory and improve upon his personal best from 2017. His time of 2:02:50 makes him the 13th fastest marathoner of all-time. Had he done that nine years ago it’d have been a world record. Not quite a near miss unless he has a time machine!

Assefa, fortunately, has time on her side. Despite having enjoyed a career that stretches back to Diamond League 800ms as a teenager, she’s still just 29. She also has talent on her side: after her first major injury disruption, she ran 2:15:37 in her second marathon ever. Four years later, her sixth fastest marathon performance is 2:16:23, and her second 2:11 in Berlin makes her the only woman in history to break 2:13:00 on multiple occasions. With a resume like that, today’s near miss could very well be tomorrow’s home run.

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