Women’s 10,000m results: Sifan Hassan holds off Gidey, Gezahegne in Tokyo

TOKYO, Japan — Sifan Hassan went into the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games targeting three gold medals. She ended her quest for glory with two but stood on the podium three times after adding a bronze medal to the collection.

After winning a gold medal in the 5000m and bronze in the 1500m, Hassan closed out her Olympic campaign with gold in the women’s 10,000m when she pulled away in the home straight to win in 29:55.32.

The Dutch star revealed that she tends to compete angry after losing a race and she distributed some of that mental toughness over the 25 lap race en route to pulling away from world record holder Letesenbet Gidey and Kalkidan Gezahegne to strike gold after the trio had broken away from the field with about 2000m left in the contest.

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Gezahegne of Bahrain who was a medal contender entering the Games, lived up to the billing as she held on for the silver medal in 29:56.18 and Ethiopian Gidey, who led for the final seven kilometres, faded in the last 110m but still managed to secure the bronze medal with 30:01.72.

Gidey who owns the world record with 29:01.03, led for most of the race as neither Hassan who was running on tired legs nor Gezahegne were interested in pacing the pack.

The race saw three personal bests and a national record from Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi, while four competitors didn’t finish the race and Tsehay Gemechu of Ethiopia got disqualified.

The top American finisher was Emily Sisson who ran 31:09.58 for 10th place.