Happy Hassan Still Stunned By Record Performance in Paris But Promises More

Published by IAAF on July 7, 2014

Sifan Hassan will be watching the clock at the next IAAF Diamond League meeting in Glasgow on Friday night after admitting that she had her mind on other things during the 1500m in Paris on Saturday night, despite coming home in an outstanding Dutch record of 3:57.00.

She decided to watch her opponents more closely than the infield chronometer but still shaved more than two seconds off her own previous record of 3:59.38, which she recorded at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene just over a month ago, to fly to the top of the 2014 world list.

“Do you know, I had no idea of the time until I crossed the line? I was shocked. I thought to myself just before the bell ‘this is a 4:04 race'. It’s true,” joked Hassan on Sunday, just as she was about to climb into a car which would take her from the French capital to her home in Arnham.

“I wasn’t watching the clock because I was concentrating hard on checking what everyone else in the race was doing. I wasn’t focused on just one person, although going into the race you could say that perhaps Abeba Aregawi or Hellen Obiri would be the ones to watch.

“However, my manager had said to me, ‘stay close to the front’ so that’s what I did and when the American (Jenny Simpson) started to push hard before the bell, I followed her, even though initially I had to spend a lot of energy to get up to her.

“It was Simpson who made it a fast race after the pacemakers dropped out, so I have to be thankful to her, but she was also the reason I had no idea about the time. I was just concentrating on beating her and winning.”

Simpson hit the front with 600m to go as the pacemaker Tamara Tverdostup, who had taken the field through 800m in 2:07.23, stepped to one side. She immediately threw down the gauntlet to the rest of the classy field.