Sifan Hassan’s schedule on the Olympic track looks more like a list of punishments drawn up by an angry physical education teacher.
She has six distance races in eight days, consisting of three 1,500m runs, two 5,000m races and a 10,000m to top it off, with two of the races on the same day, and two others on back-to-back days.
And do them all in the sapping heat and humidity of the Tokyo summer.
Photo: AP
“Crazy ideas,” Hassan said, acknowledging that the track itinerary she is considering verges on insanity. “But sometimes I’m just careless and I don’t care.”
“Right now ... if you can see inside my mind, you will think I’m crazy or something,” she said.
The proposed schedule is not the result of a whole lot of long-term planning either from the world champion in the 1,500m and 10,000m who was born in Ethiopia, but competes for the Netherlands. Rather, it was conceived after some unexpected late form in the 1,500m a few weeks ago.
Hassan, who holds world records in the mile and 5km road race, and held the 10,000m record for two days last month, had initially planned to do a more reasonable, but still ridiculously hard 5,000m-10,000m double at the Tokyo Olympics.
She got to thinking when she ran the second-fastest time this year in the 1,500m last month, even if it was in a loss to Olympic favorite Faith Kipyegon of Kenya.
There was still enough from that performance in Monaco to suggest to Hassan that she might have a chance at a medal in all three in Tokyo.
She is also second-fastest in the world in the 10,000m and is in the mix in the 5,000m.
“This year I’m healthy, I’m in the best shape of my life, I have big dreams,” she said.
“I’m in such good shape with these three events I don’t know what to do, and that’s amazing for me,” she added.
Hassan might reconsider taking on the terrible triple by the time track and field starts at the Olympics today, when she is due up in the 5,000m heats on the first evening of action at the Olympic Stadium.
“I’ll see where I am,” she said.
A medal in all three track events would be one of the feats of the Tokyo Olympics, or any Olympics.
Three golds would be fantasy land.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
FIGHTBACK: Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Jiang Xinyu of China rallied from a set down to advance to the final of the women’s doubles at the Tennis in the Land Russian second seed Ekaterina Alexandrova on Thursday beat defending champion Linda Noskova 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-2 at the Monterrey Open to secure her place in the semi-finals of the US Open tune-up event. Alexandrova, 14th in the world rankings, started the decider brightly after two tightly contested sets and while Czech Noskova fought back to level at 2-2, the Russian regained control to seal the victory in just over two hours at the WTA 500 event. “I’m really glad that I could make it through, even in three sets, because it was difficult today — she served so well, she hit so
RSS