‘You can’t sleep and win’

• Luke Blijboom

  NOS editor in Eugene, Oregon

It was the chronicle of the announced abdication. He who does not sow, also knew Sifan Hassan, after all, cannot reap. It was the reason that the Olympic champion in the ten kilometers on day two of the World Athletics Championships could be content with her fourth place in the global title fight.

“Magic doesn’t exist. You can’t sleep for a few months and then win.”

The result in Eugene was the result of the sporty hibernation that lies behind her, the 29-year-old athlete clarified. But not only that. “I ran super smart today. The second part of the race felt much better than the first 5,000 meters. I was only really stupid in the last 200 meters.”

Hassan suddenly felt like the Hassan of Tokyo 2020 again on Saturday, when she thought to place her ultimate attack in the last corner. Where she gained wings in sight of the redeeming finish line a year ago, the acceleration around the outside, in lane 3, cost her a World Cup medal this time.

She hadn’t been very bright, she admitted. “I felt so good that I started too early. When I should have said to myself: wait until the last 100 meters, because you are not in top shape.”

For that reason, she failed to answer in the last few meters to the acceleration of the three leaders, which was decided in favor by her former compatriot Letesenbet Gidey: 30.09.94. The woman who robbed Hassan of her world record a year ago after two days ended up 0.62 ahead of Hassan: 30.10.56.

Defending champion Hassan counted in her enthusiasm beyond the lack of training kilometers and race rhythm, she acknowledged. “I lost a lot of energy in the last corner. I couldn’t really go deep either, because I haven’t trained enough this year. The legs are not fast enough yet.”

Resigned: “This is simply the result of the decision I made. It is what it is.”

Without shedding a tear, Hassan humbly bowed his head at the Hayward Field Athletics Stadium just under a year after completing the deemed impossible trilogy at the Olympic 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters in Tokyo, winning bronze and two golds. . While her opponents beat the tartan piece by piece after the finish, Hassan just stood on her feet.

According to her, the scene was easy to explain. “I didn’t feel any acidification.”

She had not gone to the bottom, she wanted to say. Hassan ran smartly on the inside track for nearly 25 laps, letting her opponents do the dirty work. Those who are not strong, so was the thought, must then be smart.

The woman who is attributed superhuman powers on the 5,000 and 10,000 meters also knew all eyes were on her. The gold of the 2019 World Cup in Doha, the Olympic title of Tokyo 2020, it turned out not to be a guarantee for a medal in Eugene.

After all, Hassan had an extremely difficult run-up to Oregon22, as the tournament is also called in the United States. On September 9, 2021, she ran the 5,000 meters during the Diamond League final in Zurich. Then she got acquainted with the flip sides of her three Olympic medals.

In the months that followed, body and (especially) mind initially refused service. Although running has defined her 24-hour life for the past few years, Hassan couldn’t bring herself to resume training. Three weeks of vacation turned into a three-month period of inactivity during which she thought about her future.

At the beginning of this year, she resumed training on the back burner in Namibia and Ethiopia, where she suffered a minor leg injury. Hassan didn’t really want to call it training. In her own words, she only started this three months before the World Cup.

It was that she did not want the global title fight and, due to contractual obligations with sponsors, was able to remove it from her agenda, she stated. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have played at all this year.”

Her race calendar from 2022 covered only one race until Saturday. Between practices at 2,134 meters, in her trusted temporary base of Park City, she ran a race over 5,000 meters in her hometown of Portland. It was an outing, nothing more.

After three years in which her life had been dominated 24 hours a day by the Tokyo Games, it was necessary to let the reins loose, she clarified once again in Eugene.

“I know what I did from 2019 to 2021. It’s a conscious decision that I made to slow down. Of course I would have liked to have won a medal here. I would love to, even. This result is just the because of the decision I’ve made.”

She wants to be good again next year, when Budapest is the setting for the world championships. And she wants to be even better in 2024, when she defends her two Olympic titles in life and well-being.

But, hastened to add, she still wants to assert herself in Eugene. If she can become fourth in the world in the 10,000 meters with so little work, what is possible at half the distance programmed from Thursday, she wondered aloud in the catacombs.

The speed she naturally takes with her from the 1,500 meters can sometimes play into her hands on that number. She considered herself fortunate that she had finally registered for two running events. “I’m glad I get another chance.”