At the end of six races in eight days covering 33km, Sifan Hassan added Olympic 10,000m gold to her 5,000m title won last week after sprinting clear of her nearest rivals on the home straight and collapsing in a heap at the finish.
Hassan had come to Tokyo attempting to complete an unprecedented triple of 5k, 10k and 1,500m golds, but she was beaten by Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon in the latter final, and by Britain’s Laura Muir, leaving her with bronze.
There she had attempted to break the field with a fast start, but she was tracked all the way and when it came to the finish she didn’t have the raw speed of her rivals. The opposite occurred here, as Hassan showed offer her fast finish which proved devastating against the 10k’s endurance specialists, to win in 29 min 55.32 sec.
Bahrain’s Kalkidan Gezahegne was a surprise silver medalist while world record holder Letesenbet Gidey faded in the final lap to take bronze.
Eilish McColgan came ninth and Jessica Judd 17th. McColgan said: “I know I’m in the shape of my life so I’m a little bit disappointed, but I suppose I have to take into account the heat and humidity.
“It’s all fair and well saying I think I can run a PB and I can run fast, but the conditions were just so, so tough.”
