Hassan wins rare 1500m-10,000m double

Sunday, 6 October 2019:

Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan has completed an unprecedented double at the world athletics championships, adding the 1500m title to the 10,000m gold medal she won seven days earlier in Doha.

Hassan also had a qualifying time for the 5000m, but the schedule did not allow her to contest all three events.

The Ethiopian-born runner led from start to finish to clock a winning time of three minutes 51.95 seconds, stripping more than three seconds off her personal best, on Saturday night.

She also moved to sixth spot on the 1500m all-time list.

No man or woman had ever previously won the 1500m and 10,000m at the same Olympic Games or world championships.

Hassan is a member of the Nike Oregon Project (NOP) whose head coach Alberto Salazar was banned for four years earlier in the week for violating anti-doping regulations.

Hassan has not been implicated in the case which pre-dates her entry into the group - as is the case with Australian runner Jessica Hull - and like the other NOP athletes has never failed a drug test.

"It's a very hard week for me, I was so just angry and I could not talk to anyone. I just ran all out. That hard work can't be beaten by anything," said Hassan.

"It's what makes me angry, I have been clean all my life.

"I work hard, I'm not an emotional person but it makes me so mad."

Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon from Kenya took silver in the 1500m in 3:54.22 on her return from maternity leave, with the bronze going to Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay.

Kenyan Hellen Obiri won a second straight women's 5000m world title.

Obiri was rewarded for a brave display of front-running with the gold medal in a winning time of 14:26.72.

The minor medals went to fellow Kenyan Margaret Chelimo and German Konstanze Klosterhalfen.

American Joe Kovacs won an remarkable men's shot put final with a last-round throw of 22.91m as only one centimetre separated the three medallists.

Fellow American Ryan Crouser threw 22.90m in the concluding round, also moving him past defending world champion Tom Walsh from New Zealand on countback into the silver-medal position.

They were the three biggest throws anywhere in the world for 29 years.

Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas won a second straight women's world title with a best of 15.37m.

The 4x100m relays finals went pretty much to script, with the star-studded US team winning the men's race and the stacked Jamaican squad taking gold in the women's event.

Two of the most decorated athletes in the star-studded US track and field team, long jumper Brittney Reese and 100m hurdler Brianna McNeal, crashed out in the opening round of their respective events on Saturday.

Four-time world champion Reese could manage no better than 6.52m in the qualifying round, missing a berth in the final by 1cm and one spot.

McNeal, the 2013 world champ and reigning Olympic champion, was disqualified for a false start in her heat.






AAP






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