Sifan Hassan wins women’s marathon at Paris Olympics

PARIS (AP) — No one will ever accuse Sifan Hassan of taking the simple route on the Olympics.

Heading into the final 150 meters of her 10-day Olympics odyssey that spanned three occasions and 38 miles (62 kilometers), the Netherlands’ runner traded elbows with Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia, after which sprinted by her to win the final observe occasion of the Paris Video games.

Hassan added gold to the bronze medals she received within the 5,000 and 10,000 meters.

“I really feel like I’m dreaming. On the finish, I believed, ‘That is only a 100-meter dash. Come on, Sifan. Another. Simply really feel it,’” Hassan stated. “Each step I challenged myself, and now I’m so grateful.”

Hassan raised her palms and yelled as she crossed the road, earlier than wrapping the Dutch flag round her head. Then, taking within the enormity of her win, Hassan plunged her head in her palms and appeared to weep with pleasure.

The end had every little thing: suspense, pace, grit and feistiness, all towards the gorgeous backdrop of a golden dome glittering beneath the morning solar.

Hassan, an Ethiopia native, completed in an Olympic report time of two hours, 22 minutes, 55 seconds. Assefa received silver, three seconds behind, and Kenya’s Hellen Obiri took the bronze.

The Ethiopian workforce lodged a protest to have Hassan disqualified for obstruction, nevertheless it was rejected by the Jury of Attraction. It regarded as if Assefa was blocking Hassan earlier than they traded elbows.

Hassan didn’t attend the post-race information convention, the place Assefa stated she would have received if Hassan hadn’t impeded her.

“I didn’t anticipate at that second it might occur. Possibly at that second, if she didn’t push me I might have the gold,” Assefa stated by way of a translator. “However anyway, I’m so completely satisfied for her that she will get the gold medal.”

Assefa declined to specify if she requested for the protest or if it was the Ethiopian workforce by itself.

“I can’t say something, however she is an efficient athlete,” Assefa replied.

By merely finishing the marathon, the 31-year-old Hassan ran greater than 38 miles. She now has six Olympic medals. In Tokyo, Hassan received the 5,000 and 10,000 and completed third within the 1,500.

“She has proven the world that she will do every little thing,” Obiri stated. “Folks say it’s inconceivable, however she’s executed it. So I say ‘Large up’ for her.”

Obiri had tried to up the tempo earlier, realizing she couldn’t take Hassan in a dash.

“She is so robust,” Obiri stated. “No manner we might break her.”

Breaking from custom, the ladies’s marathon was held on the ultimate day of the Olympics as a substitute of the boys’s race.

Hassan used the identical tactic within the hilly, 26.2-mile course as she does on the oval. She lingered behind the leaders for the majority of the race earlier than launching a late-race kick that may go down as probably the greatest the game has seen.

As Hassan gathered to make her final go, Assefa tried to dam her path. Hassan moved to the within round a bend.

Assefa tried to squeeze her towards the barrier separating the course from the cheering followers. The runners traded elbows, then Hassan took off to victory.

Hassan’s legend began constructing three years in the past on the Tokyo Video games when she was tripped up in a warmth of the 1,500 however scrambled to her toes to win the race. She then went on to say the bronze.

She wasn’t as dominant over the previous two years, partly as a result of she was storing up for this feat.

After the 5,000 meters final Monday and the ten,000 meters on Friday, Hassan had roughly 35 hours to recuperate for the marathon.

She entered the Video games trying to match Emil Zatopek’s efficiency from 1952, when the Czech runner swept the 5,000, 10,000 and the marathon on the Helsinki Video games.

Hassan fell quick, however she left a long-lasting impression.

“She’s impressed so many individuals,” stated Obiri, a two-time Olympic silver medalist within the 5,000 meters.

Sharon Lokedi of Kenya was fourth on Sunday, and defending champion Peres Jepchirchir, her compatriot, positioned fifteenth.

After 21 miles (virtually 34 kilometers), Jepchirchir began falling again. That’s when Hassan and Obiri joined Amane Beriso Shankule and Lokedi on the entrance.

Shankule dropped off the tempo close to the top, making it a four-way race for gold, which grew to become three when Lokedi fell again on the method to the end reverse the gold-domed Invalides monument, website of French emperor Napoleon’s tomb.

The marathon route traced the footsteps of an historic march that occurred throughout the French Revolution.

The Girls’s March on Versailles in 1789 was organized by girls within the market of Paris as they protested the excessive value of bread, resulting in their trek from Paris to Versailles.

Beginning out from Hôtel de Ville (Metropolis Corridor), the considerably hilly route handed by way of the parks and forests. Runners took in landmarks equivalent to Opéra Garnier and the Louvre museum.

About midway by way of, they handed close to the regal grounds of the Palace of Versailles — as soon as the house of French royalty — earlier than doubling again towards Paris.

___

AP Nationwide Author Eddie Pells contributed.

___

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games