Sifan Hassan claimed the final athletics gold medal of the Paris 2024 Games, winning the women’s marathon in an Olympic record of 2:22:55 to compete a magnificent medal treble on Sunday (11).
The Dutch 31-year-old, who had already bagged 5000m and 10,000m bronze medals in Paris, held off Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa in a sprint finish.
Assefa secured silver in 2:22:58, while bronze went to Kenya’s Hellen Obiri in a PB of 2:23:10. Despite the challenging course and warm conditions. Three of the top six athletes set PBs and both Hassan and Assefa finished inside the previous Olympic record of 2:23:07 set by Tiki Gelana in 2012.
After 42km around the roads of the French capital, the race came down to a thrilling conclusion. Just 37 hours after getting bronze in the 10,000m, and six days after her first medal of the Paris Games – also bronze – in the 5000m, Hassan stormed to the marathon title.
After Hassan, Assefa and Obiri dropped Kenya’s Sharon Lokedi in the closing stages, the medal winners seemed decided but Hassan was determined to make her last one the best one.
In a battle between two sub-2 minute 800m runners, the finish was frantic and Hassan had the edge, overpowering Assefa on approach to the finish line to win by three seconds – the closest ever winning margin in a women’s Olympic marathon.
Obiri held on for bronze, finishing four seconds ahead of her compatriot Lokedi, whose 2:23:14 for fourth was a PB. Ethiopia’s Amane Beriso was fifth in 2:23:57 and Japan’s Yuka Suzuki sixth in a PB of 2:24:02.
