Sifan Hassan's bid for a region treble astatine the Olympics was astir derailed erstwhile the satellite champion tripped implicit different runner and fell astatine the last doorbell of her 1,500-metre heat.
Amazingly, she ended up winning the race.
Hassan tried, but failed, to hurdle implicit Kenya's Edinah Jebitok, who tumbled conscionable successful beforehand of her arsenic runners jostled for presumption astatine the commencement of the last lap.
OLYMPICS BLOG: DAY 10 UPDATES, NEWS | TOKYO GAMES EVENT CENTRE: SCHEDULE, RESULTS, MEDAL TALLY
Hassan besides went crashing down but rolled, rapidly got backmost to her feet and acceptable astir chasing down the battalion successful an astonishing comeback.
Staring astatine a daze elimination, the Dutch runner sped past a mates of runners down the backmost straight, had reached the starring battalion by the past bend, and won from Australia's Jessica Hull and American Elinor Purrier St. Pierre aft powering down the location straight.
Hassan finished successful 4 minutes, 5.17 seconds to suffice for the semi-finals, though she astir paid dearly for the determination to tally astatine the backmost of the tract successful the aboriginal stages of the contention and hold for the doorbell to marque her move.
She was third-from-last astatine the commencement of the last thigh and conscionable earlier she fell.
Hull was 2nd successful the aforesaid vigor with a clip of 4:05:28 to besides marque the semi-final alongside countrywoman Linden Hall who has a blistering clip of 4:02:27 successful the 3rd heat. Hall has the third-fastest qualifying clip successful the semi-final.
But Hassan's miraculous betterment kept live the Dutch runner's bid for a uncommon distance-running treble astatine the Tokyo Games.
Hassan had already qualified to tally successful the 5,000-metre last aboriginal Monday astatine the Olympic Stadium, though the vigor she expended connected that last-lap scramble successful the 1,500 heats mightiness drawback up with her erstwhile she returns successful the evening league to effort for her archetypal golden of the Games.
Hassan didn't halt to talk to reporters aft the 1,500 contention arsenic she rushed distant to retrieve and hole for the 5,000 final.
Hassan, who was calved successful Ethiopia but moved to the Netherlands arsenic a refugee, is expected to conflict with two-time satellite champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya for the 5,000 gold, portion determination are 3 Ethiopians besides challenging for a medal.
Hassan won a 1,500-10,000-metre treble astatine the satellite championships successful Doha, Qatar successful 2019. She has said she volition besides tally successful the 10,000 meters astatine the Olympics. No jock has won 1,500-, 5,000- and 10,000-meter golds astatine the aforesaid Olympics.
Hassan's grueling docket means she volition person to tally six races successful 8 days successful the Tokyo vigor and humidity, including those 2 races connected Monday and the 1,500 and 10,000 finals connected back-to-back days connected Friday and Saturday.
For a regular dose of the champion of the breaking quality and exclusive contented from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
English (US) ·