DPA
Paris
Dutch multi-event runner Sifan Hassan made history by winning a high quality Paris Olympic women’s marathon on Sunday, just edging out world record holder Tigst Assefa in a tight finish.
Hassan, who managed bronze in the Paris 5,000 metres and 10,000m having won gold in both in Tokyo, becomes the first woman to medal in all three events at one Olympics.
“I have no words. Every moment in the race I was regretting that I ran the 5000m and 10,000m. I was telling myself if I hadn’t done that, I would feel great today,” she joked.
“From the beginning to the end, it was so hard. Every step of the way. I was thinking, ‘Why did I do that? What is wrong with me?’ If I hadn’t done it, I would feel so comfortable here.”
The 2023 London and Chicago marathon winner, who was running her first Olympic marathon at 31, follows Czech male athlete Emil Zátopek who famously took medals in the three events at the 1952 Olympics - in that case all gold.
Elbows at the ready Hassan and Tigst even bumped into each other on the sprint finish, with Hassan’s track experience helping her pull away from the Ethiopian, who had smashed the mixed marathon women’s world record in Berlin last year with a 2 hours 11:53 minutes.
Hassan’s 2:22.55 was an Olympic record, remarkable given the hilly Paris route and meant that in total at the Paris Games she has run around 62 kilometres. She only ran the 10,000m final on Friday evening, meaning she had just around 35 hours to recover for the marathon.
The Ethiopia-born also was a three-time medallist in Tokyo with 1,500m bronze to go with her two golds in Japan.
“The moment I started to feel good at 20km, I felt so good. Then I knew I wanted gold. But everybody else was fresh and all I was thinking was, ‘When are they going to break? They’re going to go hard, they’re going to go hard’,” Hassan added.
“When I finished, the whole moment was a release. It is unbelievable.
I have never experienced anything like that. Even the other marathons I have run were not close to this. I couldn’t stop celebrating. I was feeling dizzy. I wanted to lie down. Then I thought, ‘I am the Olympic champion. How is this possible?’”
Obiri takes bronze as other challengers fall away Kenyan Hellen Obiri took bronze with a personal best for her third Olympic medal after 5,000m silver in Rio and Tokyo.
Compatriot Sharon Lokedi also set a personal best in fourth while world champion Amane Beriso Shankule of Ethiopia was dropped 2 kilometres from the finish and placed fifth.
Kenya’s Tokyo Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir, 30, was with the leading group until 33 kilometres when she suddenly slipped back.
Jepchirchir, who has won the New York, Boston and London marathons in the last four years, set a women’s only world record of 2:16.16 in the British capital this April. But the Paris course proved too tough for her and she finished 15th.
