Two-time Olympic and world champion Sifan Hassan made a victorious start to her outdoor season after winning the women’s 5000m at the Track Fest 2024 meeting held at Jack Kemp Stadium in Los Angeles, California, on Saturday. The Dutchwoman, who last competed at the Tokyo Marathon in March, clocked a comfortable 14:58.83 this weekend for the win in her track season debut.
Hassan, who won the women’s 5,000m and 10,000m events at the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, has once again opened her campaign in May and hopes to follow the same pattern as in 2021 when she celebrated her historic double.
Natalie Rule of Australia finished second to Hassan, 31, at the Track Fest 2024 meeting on Saturday, posting a time of 15:07.00, which is not far off her personal best mark of 15:06.50, set in 2022.
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Great Britain’s 2021 European Indoor Championships 3000m champion, Amy-Eloise Neale, was third in the race with a time of 15:07.38, with Germany’s Lea Meyer taking fourth in 15:09.13, and India’s Parul Chaudhary finishing fifth at 15:10.69.
Meanwhile, Luis Grijalva of Guatemala won the men’s 5,000m, clocking in at 13:16.53 to take the victory nearly four seconds ahead of second-place Avinash Mukund Sable (13:20.37) of India and Sam McEntee (13:25.62) of Australia.
In other events, the USA’s world indoor 1500m silver medalist, Nikki Hiltz, won an excitingly contested women’s 800m event with a time of 2:00.46. The 29-year-old was followed closely by her American teammates Emily Mackay, who ran 2:00.85, McKenna Keegan, at 2:00.89, and Samantha “Sammy” Watson, who clocked 2:00.92 for fourth.
The men’s 800m event was won by seven-time Mexican national champion and 2023 Pan American Games silver medalist Jesús Tonatiú López, who posted 1:44.71 to open his competitive season in the two-lap event. NCAA 2022 champion Moad Zahafi of Morocco was second in a time of 1:44.93, while the USA’s Isaiah Jewett, the NCAA champion in 2021, finished third in 1:45.28.
Complete results can be found here
