It is an apotheosis as you rarely see them in athletics, Saturday night at the National Athletics Center in Budapest. And when it has happened and the crowd has just caught its breath to cheer the next medal contenders, it will happen again. Two tangible medals, perhaps even world titles, pass the Dutch team at the very last moment. And the way is almost identical.
It starts with the 10,000 meters for women, one of the distances on which running prodigy Sifan Hassan has set her sights and on which she is an Olympic title holder. In the final of the discipline, the cheering in the stadium lasts so long that the thousands of Hungarian spectators have almost no lung capacity left, it is that exciting. After almost 25 full laps, it comes down to a duel, a sprint, between Hassan and the Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay.
Together they go for the finish, they don’t give each other a meter of space. Hassan is slightly ahead, but Tsegay seems to have something more to spare, and so they close in on each other. It’s a miracle that their legs don’t immediately intertwine. But somewhere on the final straight they touch each other, and in combination with the fatigue after almost ten kilometers of running, that makes the decision. The horror of the audience is almost palpable, that’s how loud it sounds in the stadium. Hassan crashes thirty meters before the finish.
For example, the 10,000 meters, one of the final disciplines on the opening day of the World Athletics Championships, ends in an anti-climax. Tsegay wins, behind her compatriots Letensenbet Gidey and Ejgayehu Taye complete the podium. Hassan scrambles up and with the help of Gidey, who has run back to check on her, finishes eleventh.
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No time for fear
In the wings of the stadium, close to where the starting blocks of the 100 meter sprint have just been removed, the mixed relay team of the Netherlands on the 400 meter – Femke Bol, Lieke Klaver, Liemarvin Bonevacia and Isaya Klein Ikkink – sees Hassan fall. They are also medal candidates, they won silver at the previous World Cup. They have no time for the fright. The crowd cheers again for the championship shot put that the American Ryan Crouser breaks (23.51 meters) and then it’s their turn, to close the evening.
I think I touched Tsegay and lost my balance
Sifan Hassan about her fall
The first 1,200 meters there is little to nothing going on. Bonevacia, Klaver and Klein Ikkink run the Netherlands to the head of the field, only the United States can stay close. When the baton is handed over to Femke Bol, it’s hard not to think: this one has arrived.
It also looks like that for a long time: when Bol comes out of the last corner on the straight to the finish, she is ahead. And that last part of the 400 meters is precisely her strongest point. But the American Alexis Holmes does not give up and keeps pace with Bol. She seems to feel that Holmes is getting closer, feels her legs sour and then, just under thirty meters from the finish, also falls.
The baton that the relay runners have to pass to each other falls out of her hand and over the finish line, out of reach. The rapid scrambling of Bol, who crosses the finish line in third place with her hands in front of her face, therefore no longer makes sense. The Netherlands is disqualified.
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Femke Bol falls just before the finish during the final in the 4 × 400 meter mixed relay during the first day of the World Athletics Championships. Photo Robin van Lonkhuijsen/ANP
For example, the Dutch athletics team, a selection that had traveled to Hungary with great expectations and had been labeled “extremely strong” by technical director Vincent Kortbeek of the Athletics Union, missed out on two almost certain medals on day 1 of the World Athletics Championships, and that too thanks to stumbling parties of the two biggest stars, Hassan and Bol.
Dejected
Afterwards, the two athletes are dejected. “I think I touched Tsegay and lost my balance,” says Hassan. “I am sad.”
“We are all human and we all make mistakes,” says Bol, looking down at the ground. “But you don’t want to make them at the highest level. I don’t know how or why I fell. I do not get it.” Then her teammate Bonevacia emphatically protects her by saying that the team has to go. Another race is scheduled for tomorrow.
In that sense, it is still very important for the two Dutch athletic stars how they react to their falls, both physically and mentally. Bol is the top favorite in the 400 meter hurdles and with the Dutch relay women medal candidate in the 400 meter. Hassan is expected to compete for the podium in the 1,500 and 5,000 meters.
We are not going to take this race to tomorrow. Then we’ll just go right again
Dear Klaver mixed relay team
“I don’t feel it yet, I’m going to experience it tomorrow morning,” says Bol about her body. Her teammate Lieke Klaver adds: „We are not going to take this race to tomorrow. Then we will just go well again.” Bol will be back in action on Monday when the series of the 400 meter hurdles are scheduled.
Hassan, who in turn saw Bol fall after her race from the mixed zone, is expected in the stadium again on Sunday evening, for the semi-finals of the 1,500 meters. Bleeding from her elbow, she bends her knee to keep it from getting stiff. But she doesn’t feel like she can’t walk with it anymore, says Hassan. “I feel okay, I think it’s okay.”
Hassan puts the bizarre denouement of her match into perspective and thus also the evening. “There is nothing we can do about it, and it can always be worse: no one is dead.” Setbacks only make you stronger, Hassan suddenly teaches, like a true teacher. “Winning is easy, accepting your loss is hard. This is a difficult moment, but also a learning moment for the future.”