Tag Archive for 'Sifan Hassan'

Sifan Hassan won the London marathon

Sifan Hassan, an Olympic champion in Tokyo over the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, won the London Marathon in a sprint in 2h18’33″ on her debut over the distance. The Muslim athlete trained during the period of Ramadan and, therefore, added an additional difficulty to the already strenuous preparation for a marathon in which she came to run 200km weekly.

She made this choice to challenge herself further; one does not undergo this kind of training for money or fame. Her coach would have liked her to make it to the marathon perhaps in two years, but she made this decision despite the fact that until the time of the start she doubted whether she would complete it.

She had stated, “My goal is to meet the marathon and get to know each other better.” Similar situation to that of Mo Farah in 2014 in the same marathon. He had already won three world titles and two Olympic golds when he debuted with an 8th place finish in London, then returned to the track and amassed five more world titles before switching to the marathon full-time in 2018.

His coach, Tim Rowberry, stated. “The most important change in training has been that Sifan has learned to run slowly. She is used to doing everything at a high intensity. When she started training with those guys, Olympians Bashir Abdiand Abdi Nageeye, they were always telling her, ‘Slow down, slow down! You have to do many kilometers, if you do too much you will kill yourself.”

Also in Hassan, as with many other female champions, determination, courage and humility emerge.