- Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won an unprecedented double at the world championships on Saturday, October 5, taking home a second gold medal in the 1500 meters after winning the 10,000 one week ago.
- Hassan, who trains with the Nike Oregon Project, ran 3:51.95 for the win, missing the world record by just two seconds.
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Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won the 1500 meters in 3:51.95, collecting her second gold medal of the world championships. The race followed an impressive victory in the 10,000-meter final, which she won just one week earlier. No other man or woman has won both the 1500 and 10,000 meters in the history of the world championships or Olympics.
Hassan’s winning performance was the sixth-fastest 1500-meter run in history and just two seconds shy of the 3:50.07 world record set by Genzebe Dibaba in 2015.
Two days after she won the 10,000-meter final, Hassan’s coach Alberto Salazar, the head of the Nike Oregon Project, was banned four years for trafficking banned performance-enhancing drugs to his athletes. After the ban was announced by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, Salazar was no longer allowed to coach the Nike Oregon Project athletes or be permitted to enter the Khalifa International Stadium. After her 1500-meter win, Hassan addressed the ban and answered questions regarding her place in the group.
“If they want to test me they can test me every single day,” Hassan told Runner’s World. “I believe in clean sport. I’m always clean, I will be clean. I believe in the Oregon Project also, they work hard. They are multi-talented.”
Behind Hassan, Faith Kipyegon finished second in a Kenyan national record of 3:54.22, while the bronze medal went to Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia, who ran a personal best of 3:54.38.
Shelby Houlihan broke the American record on her way to finishing fourth overall in 3:54.99. The Bowerman Track Club standout shattered the previous American record of 3:56.29 set by Shannon Rowbury in 2015. While she was unable to earn a medal, Houlihan’s performance was her best 1500-meter race to date. She ran a personal best by three seconds.
“One of the things I wanted to tick off this year was to get the American record, and I feel lucky to be in a race that that happened,” Houlihan said. “It’s a little bittersweet that I had a three-second PR and it wasn’t enough to get a medal, so mixed emotions about it.”
In the 10,000 meters for Hassan, the versatile runner threw down a 61-second last lap to beat Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia in a Dutch national record 30:17.33. The performance was her second 10,000-meter race ever.
Just three days after winning the 10,000 meters, Hassan returned to the track to contest the first round of the 1500. The 26-year-old won her heat in 4:03. The next day, she returned to run the semifinal and won her section in a tactical 4:14.69. Hassan’s 1500-meter crown is her seventh global championship medal.
Taylor Dutch is a sports and fitness writer living in Chicago; a former NCAA track athlete, Taylor specializes in health, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in SELF, Runner’s World, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner. When she’s not writing, Taylor volunteers as a coach to up-and-coming runners in the Chicago area.
