Nobody would ever accuse Sifan Hassan of taking the easy route at the Olympics.
Heading into the last 150m of her 10-day Olympics odyssey that spanned three events and 62km, the Netherlands’ runner rubbed elbows with Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia, and then sprinted by her to win the last track event of the Paris Games.
Hassan added gold to the bronze medals she won in the 5,000m and 10,000m.
Photo: Reuters
“I feel like I am dreaming. At the end, I thought: ‘This is just a 100m sprint. Come on, Sifan. One more. Just feel it,’” Hassan said. “Every step I challenged myself, and now I am so grateful.”
Hassan raised her hands and yelled as she crossed the line, before wrapping the Dutch flag around her head. Then, taking in the enormity of her win, Hassan plunged her head in her hands and appeared to weep with joy.
The finish had everything: suspense, speed, grit and feistiness, all against the backdrop of a golden dome glittering in the morning sun.
Hassan, who was born in Ethiopia, finished in an Olympic record time of 2 hours, 22 minutes, 55 seconds. Assefa won silver, three seconds behind and Kenya’s Hellen Obiri took the bronze.
The Ethiopian team lodged a protest to have Hassan disqualified for obstruction, but it was rejected by the Jury of Appeal. It looked as if Assefa was blocking Hassan before they traded elbows.
Hassan did not attend the post-race news conference, where Assefa said she would have won if Hassan had not impeded her.
“I didn’t expect at that moment it would happen. Maybe at that moment, if she didn’t push me I would have the gold, but anyway, I’m so happy for her that she gets the gold medal,” Assefa said through a translator.
Assefa declined to specify if she asked for the protest or if it was the Ethiopian team on its own.
“I can’t say anything, but she is a good athlete,” Assefa said.
Thirty-one-year-old Hassan now has six Olympic medals. In Tokyo, Hassan won the 5,000m and 10,000m and finished third in the 1,500m.
“She has shown the world that she can do everything,” Obiri said. “People say it’s impossible, but she’s done it. So I say big up for her.”
Obiri had tried to up the pace earlier, knowing she could not take Hassan in a sprint.
“She is so strong,” Obiri said. “No way we could break her.”
Breaking from tradition, the women’s marathon was held on the final day of the Olympics instead of the men’s race.
The marathon route traced the footsteps of an historic march that took place during the French Revolution.
The Women’s March on Versailles in 1789 was organized by women in the marketplace of Paris as they protested the high price of bread.
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