PARIS, Aug 11 – Dutch runner Sifan Hassan triumphed in a high quality Paris Olympic women’s marathon on Sunday, just edging out Tigst Assefa in a tight finish.
The 2023 London and Chicago marathon winner Hassan, who managed bronze in the Paris 5,000 metres and 10,000m having won gold in Tokyo, follows Czech Emil Zátopek who famously took medals in the three events at the 1952 Olympics – in that case all gold.
German news agency dpa reported Hassan and Tigst even bumped into each other on the sprint finish, with Hassan’s track experience helping her pull away from the Ethiopian.
Hassan’s 2 hours 22.55 seconds was an Olympic record, remarkable given the hilly Paris route. Kenyan Hellen Obiri took bronze with a personal best.
Compatriot Sharon Lokedi also set a personal best in fourth while world champion Amane Beriso Shankuleof of Ethiopia was dropped two kilometres from the finish and placed fifth, according to dpa.
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.
The course from Paris City Hall, which went out west to the Palace of Versailles and back into the city to finish at Les Invalides, had several inclines in the hot weather.
