- Sifan Hassan, the Queen of the World Cup is under suspicion
A woman runs alone, nobody accompanies her on the track of the Khalifa stadium, she seems to run away. Run away from suspicion. Run away from the headlines. He flees from the demons that accompany him. A woman runs alone in a final, the 1,500 meters, in search of much more than a gold.
The Ethiopian Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan wanted to shake off the scandal she lives under by placing her name among the best in history. A week after flying in the 10,000 meters, he offered another exercise of dominance, of superiority, one even more exaggerated. At 200 meters he placed himself in the lead and in the absence of 500 meters he separated from rivals such as the Kenyan Faith Kipyegon , who would record his national record - from Kenya! - or the Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay , who would make the best mark of his life. Despite the very high level of the test, Hassan opened a chasm between her and the rest and threw herself towards the goal with a single objective: the world record that Genzebe Dibaba set in 2015 (3: 50.07). He stayed for almost two seconds (3: 51.95), but it was a historic time: World Cup record, Hassan for posterity.
In the Khalifa stadium, where the Ethiopians put the music, the songs, the joy, the fondista was cheered, but in the face of the coaches, of the other athletes, of the leaders, of the followers, of the journalists were rare silly faces. Again in these.
Once again, an extraordinary performance by an athlete demanded an act of faith. Only with innocence and confidence can you celebrate the double of Hassan, the first of a woman in 1,500 and 10,000 meters . His coach, Alberto Salazar , was disabled for four years last Tuesday by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and inevitably the doping stain extended to his athletes. "We have to learn to separate Salazar's penalty from the results of his athletes in this World Cup," said Sebastian Coe , president of the International Athletics Federation (IAAF), but that is impossible. "We have a murderer, yes, but where is the body?" Wrote journalist Barney Ronay in The Guardian logically. If Salazar used illegal methods to prepare his athletes, they should also be investigated and punished.
A childhood of misery
«I have shown what can be done with hard work. It has been a very difficult victory for me. I am very angry with what people are saying. I have worked very hard to be here. It seems to have been easy, but it has been the result of hard work, ”said Hassan, who in other circumstances would show an inspiring story.
After a childhood of misery in Ethiopia, at age 15 she appeared in Holland , spent eight months in the center of asylum seekers in Zuidlaren, received papers as a refugee and thanks to athletics found her place in the world. On some occasions he has even revealed that he broke up any relationship with his family in Ethiopia, with his mother and with his grandmother, because they would never approve of him running. «My job would seem ridiculous, they wouldn't accept it. They would not accept that he ran and unless he did it with shorts and hair in full view of the world, ”he acknowledged a few years ago to De Volkskrant where he admitted his discomfort as a Muslim for having to compete showing legs and shoulders and for not being able to use The hijab
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