Published : Aug 11, 2024, 6:15 PM IST
Paris (France): The Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan implemented her famous late kick on Sunday to win a gold medal in the women’s marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The athlete had won a bronze medal in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres earlier this week and a gold in the marathon took her medal count to three. With this accomplishment, Hassan became the first female athlete to win medals in the 5000m, 10000m and marathon in the same edition.
Hassan was going neck to neck with Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia but she overtook her rival in the last stretch of the race. She crossed the finish line in an Olympic record time of two hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds.
Asseffa took silver by finishing three seconds behind the leader. Hellen Obiri of Kenya finished the race in third position with a timing of 2:23:10 and claimed a bronze. With the feat, she became the first athlete to win an Olympic medal in all three distance events at a single Olympic edition since Czech Emil Zatopek in 1952.
It was a tough contest with multiple event favourites present in the leading pack within the last 10km of the race. Defending champion Kenya's Peres Jepchirchir lagged as Asseffa overtook many challengers with Hassan hanging onto the back of the leaders’ pack. Sifan Hassan boosted up her speed on the last turn and sneaked past Assefa. Assefa then tried to catch up with the leader but failed to do so and Hassan won the race while also clocking the Olympic record.
