Tsegay from Ethiopia clinches victory, while Sifan Hassan, the Ethiopian-Dutch athlete, was in a final sprint for the world championship when she suffered a crash, resulting in Ethiopia securing a hat-trick of wins.
Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay was crowned world champion in the 10,000 m on Saturday in Budapest after an epic final in which the Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan fell just a few meters from the finish line while battling for the title.
In 31 min 27 sec 18, Tsegay won her second international title, after the 5,000 m at the World Championships in Eugene (Oregon) in 2022, and completed an Ethiopian hat-trick ahead of world record-holder and defending champion Letesenbet Gidey and Ejgayehu Taye.
After a particularly slow, tactical race in the first half, the Ethiopian and then the Kenyan athletes accelerated one after the other, leaving around ten competitors in the lead pack with two laps to go.
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Hassan, who had spent the entire race at the rear of the group, accelerated violently with 300 m to go, followed by Tsegay and Gidey. The Dutch Olympic champion found herself neck-and-neck with Tsegay in the final straight and then crashed out with around 20 m to go, finishing only 11th, after some minor contact with her rival.
Nevertheless, the Dutchwoman kept smiling at the finish and quickly made her way to the mixed zone. She is scheduled to compete in three events in Budapest (10,000, 5,000 and 1,500 m) and is due to contest the 1,500 m semi-finals on Sunday afternoon.
From a start a pedestrian pace to a crazy last lap including an unfortunate crash and a sweep for ????????
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) August 20, 2023
The women's 10,000m had it all ????#WorldAthleticsChamps pic.twitter.com/LCwY0JwAi7