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EUGENE, Ore. — Endurance icon Sifan Hassan wasn’t going for three medals this time. Now, she won’t even get two.
The Dutch distance workhorse got outraced to the line in a fight-to-the-finish 10,000 meters Saturday at world championships. She finished fourth, behind Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia, Hellen Obiri of Kenya and Obiri’s late-charging teammate, Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi.
Gidey won in 30 minutes, 9.94 seconds. Only 0.62 seconds separated the top four runners.
It means Hassan’s only chance for a medal will come next week in the 5,000 meters, a race in which she is the reigning Olympic champion.
The 29-year-old also won the 10,000 and took bronze in the 1,500 last summer in Tokyo, finishing a three-medals-in-three-races combo that had never been done before.
She scaled back this year, not wanting to race nearly 25,000 meters over six races – prelims and finals included – in the span of a week. The 10,000, a distance at which she won the world championship in 2019, seemed to be setting up perfectly for her as the runners reached the backstretch with about 200 meters to go.
In a five-woman phalanx battling for three medals, Hassan pulled out wide and drew into third place, just behind Gidey and Obiri. But she could not pass either, and over the last 40 meters, Kipkemboi put on a charge to pass Hassan on the inside.
Hassan is expected back on the track Wednesday for prelims in the 5,000, the distance she has never captured at worlds.
Gidey added this gold to a silver she won three years ago at worlds in Doha and a bronze from the Tokyo Olympics last year.
She was the first champion on a day that also included the men’s 100 meters on the evening schedule. Fred Kerley ran a 9.79 in the opening round, setting himself up as a favorite in a race that will include defending world champion Christian Coleman and reigning Olympic champion Marcel Jacobs.