Konstanze Klosterhalfen was unable to intervene in the fight for a medal over 10,000 meters at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, despite a strong performance.

The German record holder from Leverkusen remained wafer-thinly above her national record with a time of 31: 01.97 minutes, placing her in eighth place behind overwhelming competition.

"Eighth - that makes me really proud and happy," said Klosterhalfen on ZDF.

Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands won in 29: 55.32 minutes and took her second gold in Tokyo. She had previously won over 5000 meters, making her only the second runner after the Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba in Beijing in 2008, who managed the double over the two longest stadium courses. Born in Ethiopia, Hassan wanted to win the historic gold triple in Japan, but on Friday she was “only” third over 1500 meters. Silver went to Kalkidan Ezahegne (Bahrain / 29: 56.18), world record holder Letensebet Giday (Ethiopia / 30: 01.71) had to be content with bronze.

Klosterhalfen held up for 4000 meters at the end of the leading group until it had to be demolished after increasing the pace. At the end of February, she had improved the German record over 10,000 meters to 31: 01.71 minutes in the USA, the center of her life and training. After that, however, they had slowed down stubborn pelvic problems, and it wasn't until the end of July that they competed again in a test competition over 5000 meters. No German runner has ever won an Olympic medal over 10,000 meters, Kathrin Ullrich finished fourth in Seoul in 1988.

At the meeting in Hengelo, the Netherlands, on June 6, Hassan had improved the world record of the Ethiopian Almaz Ayana, which she had achieved in her 2016 Olympic victory in Rio de Janeiro, by almost eleven seconds to 29: 06.82. Giday was only 48 hours faster at the same place in the Ethiopian Olympic eliminations (29: 01.03).