Wild claim – The hero runner was forcibly forced to compete

Three-time Olympic champion and two-time major marathon winner Sifan Hassan ran his last marathon in August in Sydney. EPA / AOP

Money spoke and Dutch Sifan Hassan was almost forcibly forced to compete in the prestigious New York Marathon on Sunday.

– I claim that Sifan Hassan ran because Nike had nothing better to put in the game. The New York marathon is of great importance to equipment manufacturers. The event is also a battle of shoe brands. Hassan wouldn’t have run if he hadn’t received a lot of starting money from Nike, says Iltalehti’s athletics expert Arto Bryggare.

The Dutch Olympic champion softened to sixth place and was five minutes behind the leader. He ran his last marathon on August 31 in Sydney and won.

Two marathons in the same season. It’s an old and common expert estimate, how many 42-kilometer elite athletes can run in a year at the top level. With the current “spring shoes”, the estimate has been checked and with optimal timing it is possible to fit three hard marathons into the same season.

– The US equipment manufacturer Nike calculated that there is no better contender in the team, so Hassan was talked about. It would not have been worthwhile for Hassan to run so fast after Sydney. He complained at a press conference in New York that he is not ready to compete, commented Bryggare.

– Hassan’s competition was a shocking fight. He collapsed at the end because Sydney was pushing hard, the expert adds.

Money like garbage

The winner in New York was an athlete from the Swiss brand Oni Hellen Obiri.

Came second Sharon Lokediwho is a runner for Under Armour, a US equipment manufacturer known for golf, Yankees football and baseball.

– It’s a surprise to me that smaller brands in running have bought athletes of that level. I’m sure that, for example, Obiri’s Victory Bonus from his shoe company is at least the same as the 100,000 USD prize pool paid by the race organizers.

One hundred thousand bucks is about 86,000 euros.

Delicious

Obiri’s winning time of 2:19:51 is a new course record. The Kenyan is a two-time 5,000m world champion.

The title in major marathons is Obiri’s fourth in his career. The previous ones have come from Boston (2023 and 2024) and New York in 2023.

– Obiri’s run looks bouncy and he uses his hands hard. You don’t usually run a marathon like that, but he has a great physique. From that position, it is easier to do the final cycle. The previous losses in New York and Boston were probably weighing on the mind.

Bryggare characterizes the New York Women’s Marathon as the “tastiest” major race of the season.

– Great weather and a great track. That’s how a marathon should be organized. This is an awful lot harder to watch when women and men run separately. There were no lens-like men with the top women.

A handsome but heavy route and a race organized without hares mean that there will be no world records in New York.

Triple in the USA

Kyyti’s ride in the men’s marathon was “lazy” compared to the current level, as the winning time of 2.08.09 is the most modest in this season’s major marathons.

Kenya fought for first place Benson Kipruto in the final letter translation. Kipruto left his compatriot Alexander Mutison about 300 meters before the finish, until Mutiso came almost alongside in the last meters. The difference between the two at the finish line was 16 hundredths of a second in favor of Kipruto. Since the official results of marathons are reported to the nearest second, the two have the same finishing time. The men are Adidas runners.

– The top men looked at each other and followed each other’s movements throughout the race. Both had a tremendous resource to run harder.

Kipruto’s record is 2.02.16 and Mutison’s 2.03.11.

– British Patrick Dever was fourth. A tough guy at next season’s European Championships in Birmingham, if he’s there.

Kipruto, 34, is now the only man in the world to have won all three major marathons held in the United States. In 2021, he was number one in Boston and a year later in Chicago.

A legend of the sport Eliud Kipchoge goodbye to the 17th place (+6.27) that finished the major marathons.

– It was a real farewell run.