The past two weeks have flown by, but now it is finally here: the last day of the Paris Olympic Games. Today Sifan Hassan and Anne Luijten start the Olympic marathon, a particularly tough finale under these circumstances: on Saturday morning we saw the men break down on the gruelling course (Abdi Nageeye was definitely not the only one who had to drop out) and this morning the 91 women are also having a hard time under the French sun. Equipped with cooling headbands and ice cubes, they start the 42.195 km with no less than 483 meters of elevation.
Sifan Hassan takes GOLD in the marathon in new Olympic record
Sifan Hassan has become one of the most talked about athletes in the world in recent years. Especially in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Paris, the entire sports world was extremely curious about what Hassan would do. She had qualified for four events, but that was, as she indicated with a smile in her typical Sifan way, a bit too much. It became the Zátopek challenge: she started with the 5000 meters, where she won bronze after a chaotic race. On Friday evening she appeared at the start of the 10,000 meters, where she managed to win bronze again. About 36 hours later it is time for the most important and toughest distance according to Sifan, the marathon.
Hassan starts as we are used to from her, quite calm, somewhere in the middle of the group without pushing. She passes the 15 kilometer point as 12th. Only then, when the first big hills start, she clearly tries to connect with the leading group. After 1.13.25 she passes the half marathon point as 11th, at the tail of the leading group. She continues to run relaxed and economically. At the hills it becomes clear how challenging the course is, the leading group falls apart and Hassan also falls back. Fortunately she manages to close that gap again when the course starts to go down again.
From about 32 kilometres onwards the course is flat again, and the athletes naturally make use of this. The pace increases slightly, the leading group becomes smaller, but Sifan continues to run strongly. At 35 kilometres she is sixth, without a single second behind. In the last 5 kilometres she makes a particularly strong and relaxed impression, she stays economically behind the two Kenyans (Lokedi and Obiri) and two Ethiopians (Shankuri and Assefa). The pace increases, Shankuri and Lokedi are dropped anyway. Sifan starts for a legendary final sprint against Assefa and after 2.22.55 she is the first to cross the special blue finish line in a new Olympic record.
‘Much more beautiful than Tokyo’
Anne Luijten runs strong marathon in tough conditions
With so much attention for Sifan, we should not forget that another Dutch marathon sensation will be at the start today: Anne Luijten. The Dutch champion qualified for the Games in Amsterdam in October 2023 with her third marathon ever (!). The 30-year-old indicated in advance that she would travel to Paris with confidence. She continued to train at altitude in St. Moritz for as long as possible, perfected her heat plan for the European Championships in Rome and she also knows the route of the Olympic marathon. Almost nothing can go wrong anymore.
Luijten stays with the big group for the first few kilometers, but then a gap quickly opens up. She runs around 70th place for a while. Halfway through, she has made up some places and is 61st. While several athletes quickly drop out, Luijten keeps going well. She also has a hard time on the hills, the gap between her and the leading group grows, but she keeps going. On the flat part, she manages to pick up the pace again. She crosses the finish line in 50th place after 2.33.42.
‘Everything taken out’
‘I’m very happy that I made it to the finish,’ Luijten says afterwards. ‘I was well prepared for the heat and I knew the course, but it was still very tough. But I got everything out of it today. Especially in the second half I overtook a lot of women, that felt good. I’m happy with my race.’
‘There were Dutch people on every meter, that was really cool! It seemed like the whole of the Netherlands had come to Paris to cheer us on, so special. I also think it’s great that Sifan made it. Nobody really believed in her plan, everyone thought she was crazy, but she just did it, that’s fantastic.’
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