Holland’s Sifan Hassan and Femke Bol fell from the top positions within half an hour on Saturday at the World Athletics Championships.
Joel Sippola,
Petra Manner
Athletics World Championships 19.8.–27.8. Ylen channels. See the schedule and broadcast information of the games at this link.
The opening night of the World Championships in Budapest saw an unimaginable half an hour, when two Dutchmen fell on the final stretch in the gold fight.
First, the women’s 10,000 meters saw a dramatic decision, when in the final straight, Ethiopia’s World Cup gold Gudaf Tsegayn fought with Holland Sifan Hassan went undone.
Hassan seemed to hit an Ethiopian running beside him. Tsegay won the World Cup gold, while Hassan, who finished on foot, was 11th.
Second placed Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey came to beat the rather good-natured Dutchman to the finish line. Ethiopia’s triple victory was completed Ejgaeyhu Taye.
Hassan himself was not going to protest.
– It doesn’t matter to me. Our sports federation may protest. However, I lost it, Hassan told Urheilu.
The Dutch also had drama in the 4 x 400 meter medley relay. Country anchor and 400m hurdles star Femke Bol crashed in a clear lead just before the finish line and lost the world championship to the USA, who made the ME time.
The United States set a world record on the way. In the end, Holland was the last of the whole race.
Richardsson led for a long time in the 10,000m final
Reached the 15th place Camilla Richardson got to experience at 10,000 meters what it feels like to lead the World Championship final. When the others didn’t have the will to bet, the Finnish runner moved to the top after the first kilometer.
Under Richardsson’s command, the sky was high for several laps. He had to give up his top spot only after the halfway point, when the front runners wanted to increase the pace.
– I had thought about quite a few scenarios, but that wasn’t one of them, Richardsson stated.
Richardsson said that he made a mistake in the race earlier this summer when he didn’t start pulling. Now he wanted to try a different tactic.
– There was terrible pushing back then. Even now I had to brake all the time. Someone ran over me. I lost my nerve.
– Actually, it was easier when I went to pull. I thought I had no chance of winning this. Let’s start pulling and see what happens.
It was a little too loud.
– The pace was uneven. When the main group left, it was too loud, Richardsson said.