The last day of competition Paris 2024 It began with the women’s marathon, the most demanding event in the athletic program. And, as happened with Tamirat Tola in the men’s category, the gold medal came with an Olympic record. In this case the winner was Sifan Hassan, who finished the 42.195 kilometers of competition with a time of 2:22:55, leaving behind the 2:23:07 of the Ethiopian Tiki Gelana in London 2012.
The 31-year-old Dutchwoman of Ethiopian origin had won the bronze medal in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, events she won in Tokyo 2020, and now she obtained the long-awaited gold in the most demanding competition in the athletic program. She achieved it just 34 hours after running for the last time on the Stade de France track. She put on her sneakers again this Sunday and, on a decorated tour of the different tourist attractions in Paris, she was faster than everyone to end up raising her arms and celebrating with her eyes fixed on the sky.
Second place was in the hands of the Ethiopian Tigst Assefa, who arrived just three seconds behind Hassan in a definition full of tension. The thing is that just meters from the finish, when both had already detached themselves from the Kenyan Hellen Obiri, bronze winner, had a brush centimeters from the fences that separate the athletes from the public and became destabilized. In any case, that did not prevent the race from continuing its normal course and the European runner took the gold.
For its part, Argentina Florencia Borrelli finished in 21st place, 6:34 behind the leader, and Daiana Ocampo He arrived in 41st place (+9:07). When she crossed the finish line, Ocampo looked very emotional: she held her face, let some tears fall and threw herself on the ground with the satisfaction of having completed her first Olympic participation.
Hassan’s feat had the added merit of accumulated fatigue, humidity close to 70% and the difficulty of an urban circuit with large slopes – among them a “wild” ramp shortly before kilometer 30, with an inclination of 13%, the highest wall of the layout. He was in the first platoon of the race at all times, without showing his cards and running at a constant pace that gave no clues about his tactics and his physical condition, an unknown after a week of maximum wear and tear.
At the decisive moment, when the race accelerated behind the 30 kilometer wall, only five athletes remained: Hassan herself along with the Ethiopians Assefa – world record holder – and Amane Beriso Shankule and the Kenyans Sharon Lokedi y Hellen Obiri, who left the Japanese behind Yuka Suzuki, who couldn’t keep up the pace from that moment on.
In the final sprint, Hassan became unreachable for Assefa and, with the gold in the marathon, he says goodbye to Paris with three medals, the same number of metals that he won in Tokyo 2020 with the golds in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters and the bronze in the 1,500.