Sifan Hassan traded elbows with Tigst Assefa with 150 metres left in the women’s marathon Sunday, then passed her along the railing to win the race for her third distance medal of the Paris Games.
Hassan, an Ethiopian-born racer who runs for the Netherlands, finished in an Olympic record time of two hours 22 minutes 55 seconds. Ethiopia’s Assefa, three seconds behind her, took silver and Kenya’s Hellen Obiri (2:23:10) earned 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, who was twice impeded before they traded elbows.
Hassan raised her hands and yelled as he crossed the line, then wrapped the Dutch flag around her head as she celebrated. Wearing an orange bucket hat, she wrapped an arm around Nepal’s Shantoshi Shrestha, whose smile was as bright as the sun pouring down on them.
Then, taking in the enormity of her win, Hassan plunged her head in her hands and appeared to weep with joy.
“I have no words. Every moment in the race I was regretting that I ran the 5,000 and 10,000 [metres earlier at the Games],” said Hassan. “From the beginning to the end, it was so hard.
“The moment I started to feel good at 20 [kilometres], 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’.”
WATCH | Hassan reaches top of podium with 3rd medal at Paris Olympics:
Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands captures gold in the women’s marathon at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 with an Olympic record time of 2:22.55. Hassan also claimed bronze in the women’s 5,000-metre and 10,000-metre events earlier in the week.
The 31-year-old also won bronze on the track in the 5,000 and 10,000. By simply completing the marathon, she ran more than 62 km. She now has six Olympic medals. In Tokyo, Hassan won the 5,000 and 10,000 and finished third in the 1,500.
Malindi Elmore was the lone Canadian in Sunday’s race and placed 35th, clocking 2:31:08 in her second Olympic marathon. Three years ago, the 44-year-old placed ninth in Sapporo, Japan.
Breaking from tradition, the women’s Olympic marathon was held on the final day instead of the men’s race.
Hassan used the same tactic on the hilly 42.2 km course she does on the oval. She lingered behind the leaders for the bulk of the race before summoning up the energy for a late-race kick that will go down as one of the best the sport has seen.
This one, amazingly, had more the look of a crowded race on the oval down the stretch. As Hassan gathered to make her last pass, Assefa tried to block her path. Hassan moved to the inside around a bend.
Assefa tried to squeeze her against the barrier separating the course from the cheering fans. The runners traded elbows, then Hassan took off past Assefa and sprinted in for the win.
She’s used to winning the hard way, after all.
Her legend started building three years ago at the Tokyo Games when she was tripped up in a heat of the 1,500 but scrambled to her feet to win the race. Hassan then went on to claim the bronze.
35 hours to recover for marathon
She wasn’t as dominant over the past two years, in part because she was storing up for this feat: covering 62 km over 10 days with Olympic medals on the line.
Hassan raced the 5,000 last Monday and 10,000 on Friday, giving her roughly 35 hours to recover for the marathon.
She entered the Games looking to match Emil Zatopek’s performance from 1952, when the Czech runner swept the 5,000, 10,000 and the marathon at the Helsinki Games.
She didn’t manage to accomplish the feat, but she leaves with a gleaming gold medal.
Peres Jepchirchir, the 2021 Olympic champion from Kenya, was 15th in Sunday’s race
Elmore ‘grateful for the opportunity’
Elmore made her Olympic debut 20 years ago as a middle-distance runner, finishing 37th over 1,500 metres in Athens. The Kelowna, B.C., native retired from professional running in 2012 before returning seven years later as a marathon runner.
Last September, the former Canadian record holder in the women’s marathon achieved the qualifying standard for Paris, finishing 13th in 2:23:30 among female participants at the Berlin Marathon.
“That was really hard today,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “Stayed positive to control what I could and finished with a smile. Grateful for the opportunity while disappointed with the result. That’s sports.”
Elmore prepared for these Games with a second-place finish in the half marathon as part of the 46th Manitoba Marathon, clocking 1:13:09 on June 16 in Winnipeg.
She received a pre-Olympic scare in April when she was forced to withdraw from the Boston Marathon while dealing with hamstring tendinopathy, a condition in which the tendon that connects the hamstring muscles to the pelvis becomes irritated, resulting in pain and limited function.
WATCH | Tamirat Tola tops men’s marathon field and sets Olympic mark:
Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia claims the gold medal in the men’s marathon with an Olympic record time of 2:06:26.
