As a track runner with numerous medals, Sifan Hassan ran his first marathon in London – and won it.
Two-time Olympic champion Sifan Hassan, 30, celebrated winning the London Marathon on Sunday. The Dutchman, who ran his first marathon, clocked a winning time of 2:18.33. He raced to victory in the last 100 meters and defeated Ethiopia Alemu Megertun by four seconds and third place Kenya Peres Jepchirchirin in five seconds.
In the past, Hassan has won numerous competitions and prestigious medals in track races with 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters, but he has also run three half-marathons in his career, although the previous one was in 2019.
– This is unbelievable. I didn’t think I would ever finish a marathon and now I beat it! Hassan was surprised in an interview with the BBC.
Even on Friday, Hassan said that he woke up at night wondering why on earth he decided to run a marathon. The London competition served as both a challenge and a test for next year’s Paris Olympics.
The Ethiopian-born runner said that he had problems with his hip during the race. Because of that, he even had to stop along the way, after about an hour of the race, and he dropped out of the main group. According to the leading group, Hassan got up about six kilometers before the finish line.
Hip pain was by no means Hassan’s only problem during the race, as he struggled with drink stations. The reason for this was found in the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which Hassan has followed as a Muslim. During the fast, he has not been able to eat or drink anything during the day, so in addition to the fact that his body has been hard, he also had not practiced drinking or picking up drinking bottles during the race.
– I missed one of the drinking stations! I didn’t train for that part of the race because I’ve been fasting and it was pretty hard. But I needed it!
However, Hassan’s race didn’t end in splashing with water bottles, and he even offered his own drinking bottle Yalemzerf to Yehualawto last year’s winner.
Hassan has planned to run his next marathon in either Chicago or New York, but before that he is focusing on the World Championships in Budapest in August.
– I have learned to be patient and just run my own race. Just go at your own pace and maybe then you will surprise yourself, Hassan said.
Sources: AFP, Reuters