Paris. In a thrilling and memorable finale to close the athletics at the Paris 2024 Games, Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan took Olympic gold in the marathon on Sunday, after having won bronze in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres.
Hassan completed the legendary distance of 42.195 km with a time of 2 hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds, setting a new Olympic record, and relegating Ethiopian Tigst Assefa (2h22:58) to silver and Kenyan Hellen Obiri (2h23:10) to bronze.
The Dutch athlete, born 31 years ago in Ethiopia, thus put the finishing touch to her Olympic performance, in which she surprised everyone by deciding to take part in the three longest distance events. She also had the merit of competing in the marathon early on Sunday after a 10,000-metre final that ended on Friday night, so she had very little recovery time, just 35 hours.
In Paris 2024, between series and races, Hassan has run 62,195 kilometres at high intensity and the marathon at these Olympic Games was especially demanding, with climbs and descents, on a less flat profile than usual.
Hassan was unable to emulate the triple Olympic gold medal won by Czech Emil Zatopek in Helsinki 1952, but his performance is nonetheless memorable.
At the 2020 Tokyo Games, she had also managed to climb onto the Olympic podium in three events, in that case with golds in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres, and a bronze in the 1,500 metres.
There was excitement surrounding her success in the Olympic marathon on Sunday, where five kilometres from the finish line there were still five candidates in the leading group.
In the final kilometre, Hassan and Assefa came out on top and the victory was decided between the two, with the former having a successful run on the Esplanade des Invalides in a beautiful final sprint.
With the women’s marathon held on the last day instead of the men’s, as has been tradition until now, athletics bids farewell to these Olympic Games.
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– 2024-08-15 23:09:37
