Will Safan Hassan's first title at the Tokyo Games in the 5,000m call for others? The Hassan soap opera has in any case not finished to hold on during these Olympics as the company seems crazy and improbable. But nothing seems to be able to stop the 28-year-old runner for the moment. Neither the Kenyan colony led by Helen Obiri, nor the Ethiopians and their leader Gudaf Tsegay, nor even the somewhat soggy track after the huge downpours spilled shortly before the start of the race got the better of Hassan's insolent superiority, who disgusted all her rivals in a final round swallowed like a rocket. The Dutchwoman finally won in 14'36''79 ahead of Obiri,Double distance world champion but unable to keep up with the hellish pace set by the Dutchwoman in the last meters (14'38''36).
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Hell program
Hassan was not, however, his first feat of arms of the day.
The world gold medalist over 1500m and 10,000m in 2019 had in the morning achieved the feat of winning her 1500m series despite a big fall on the last lap.
Falling heavily on the track and far behind, she immediately got up to pass all her opponents one by one before crossing the line as the winner (4'05''17).
A demonstration that did not prevent her from reigning a few hours later on the 5000m.
With this first victory in his pocket, the indefatigable Hassan will have just a day to breathe before continuing with the semi-finals of the 1500 m on Wednesday.
In case of qualification, she will have to return to the track of the Olympic stadium for the final scheduled for Friday before that of the 10,000m the next day.
A hellish program which, if successful, would only rekindle doubts and suspicions around the Ethiopian-born runner whose sulphurous mentor, American coach Alberto Salazar, was suspended for four years for "
incitement to doping
”in 2019. Even if she has never been involved in a case.
Disillusionment for Echevarria
Far from controversy, Morocco has finally found a successor to King Hicham El Guerrouj. The country had been waiting for an Olympic champion for 17 years and it was Soufiane El Bakkali who put an end to this long scarcity by winning without discussion the 3000m steeplechase (8'08''90). In the morning, the length final was much more eventful and ended on the last try. The Cuban Juan Miguel Echevarria, who thought he had done the hardest with a jump to 8.41m, had his hair cut in extremis by the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou, author of a similar leap but ultimately victorious for the benefit of his second best attempt (8.15m against 8.09m for Echevarria). This is a big disappointment for Echevarria, great hope of the discipline (22 years old), who does nothas yet to clinch a title in a major outdoor championship. The 100m hurdles were less epic with the announced success of Puerto Rican Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (12''36), 24 hours after having signed in the semifinals the sixth performance in history (12''26), at six hundredths of the world record for American Kendra Harrison, who finished second.
