Sifan MF Hassan - Runs 29:06.82 10,000 WR!

It is surprising that Kara Goucher and Mary Cain have not gone on Twitter yet (I'll give them some time because they are such class acts) to congratulate Sifan on a great moment in women's running.

Follow this lady from another planet right here.

Crazy that she only ran 14:35 two or three weeks ago. Today, she ran faster average pace for 10000

If anyone watched her 29:36 last year in abysmal conditions this really shouldn’t be a shock. She was clearly capable of smashing the record.

I hate to be that guy but I’m incredibly suspicious of Hassan. Her leap in performance happened after she joined Alberto Salazar. Enough said.

Like Genzebe Dibaba’s coach got caught with EPO.

Ben Johnson infamous cheated to beat Carl Lewis at the 1988 Olympic s . Except Carl Lewis shouldn’t have even been at the olympics since he was caught doping at the 1988 olympic trials but it got covered up.

Can we just drop that charade of clean athletics LMAO.

incredible athlete. She's on another level.

invest in a vpn, set it to the uk or another european country , and go to youtube and search for meet name. great coverage. showed every lap. vpn is a good investment, ~$30 for 3 years, i use nordvpn but many others, almost all decent races to watch now set up so you have pay in the usa one way or another. youtube will have the replay in usa in 2-3 days usually. i use uk vpn for most track meets because you get english announcers who are far more competent that the usual ones you see in the usa. good luck

It was not such a leap. Look at the stats pointed above. She was a sub 2 800m 3:57 1500m and sub 8:30 3k runner in 2014. She was in her early twenties among the top 3-5 in the world with quite consistent 3:56-57 1500m times BEFORE she joined Salazar. Under Salazar it took 3 seasons to get to the superlative 2019 lvl.

Now compare this to Houlilhan or Schweizer who got from also rans (barely getting into a international final) to world class times within ONE season. (the former 2017- to 18, the latter 2019 and 20). Or Debues Stafford within 2019.

Or to many other athletes, most recently, Tsegay, from a 4 sec PB in the Doha final (after getting completely beaten in Monaco and Zurich) to an absurdly split indoor WR 1:57 indoor 800m and a sub 30 10k all within a few months.

Of course, Hassan is suspicious because of the marks and the range. But her development was more slow and consistent (i.e. fewer leaps) than for most other world class middle/long distance runners of the last 5-7 years, I'd say.

Some of these aren't quite apples to apples comparisons though. E.g. Debues-Stafford. She went 4:03 to 3:56, but that leap was also her first year with a pro training group after graduating college. Someone having a big jump when they turn full time is pretty standard. If that someone is someone who ran 4:03 at 21/had already made an Olympics and a world semi final as a junior *and* now they swap out college teammates for Laura Muir? Yeah not surprised to see a big jump. I actually bumped into Lynn Williams - the prior Canadian 1500m record holder shortly after Doha 2019 and asked her about her record being smashed that year. She said she wasn't surprised at all and had been saying since FISU 2015 that Stafford was going to break 4. That's different to Sifan running 3:56/57 many years straight before joining a coach with a shady reputation, and exploding to 3:51.

But also have to think about times almost logarithmically. The faster you get, the harder it is to improve. I.e. to jump 4:20 to 4:10 is exponentially easier than jumping 4:10 to 4:00. The jump 3:56 to 3:51 is a harder jump than 4:01 to 3:56. Then when you consider the 3:56 PB for Hassan pre 2019 was getting dragged by Dibaba, while her 3:51 had no pacer, was front run start to finish, and was following semis, heats, and a 10000m where she closed in 3:59. To me, even without career context that's actually a larger jump in fitness than going say 4:03 to 3:56.

I want to believe in her because I find her actually quite likeable: She's got a good story, and is a fantastic interviewee. If I could sit down with any athlete in current track and have a good three hour conversation with, she would probably be top 3. Unique set of talent, experiences and personality. I agree, I do personally find Tseguy more suspect though Jo. Hassan ebbs and flows - as she focuses on strength like right now her speed fades a bit (2:01 800 last month) while Tseguy is apparently still knocking everything out the park 800-10000 all at the same time.

Doper pure and simple. It is a very dirty sport.

Before joining team Salazar Hassan wasn't bad, but she didn't have good training discipline. I remember reading that she said she had trouble taking her training seriously, she was often late from practice and would always rather do something else. I can see how the holistic and disciplined approach of Salazar could have caused big improvements. As others pointed out she lost weight too which may or may not improve performance but is surely not accidental, she was trying harder.

Before coming to Salazar, she only trained once a day. It took her a couple of years to adapt to a professional training regimen.

Guess what? She used wavelight pacing. Another WR goes down due to perfect pacing longer than any human rabbit could muster.

When are these wavelights going to be banned and these fraudulent WRs stripped? It's a travesty and a mockery.

Even if she tests positive, she had a successful profitable career so then why wouldn't anyone cheat in T&F? She is only known among Track Fans so it isn't like shame is a deterrent.

casual obsever wrote:

Jo72 wrote:

I don't know of anyone if they are clean. But Hassan was a 3:56 runner before she came to Salazar

True. But she was also one of the only 17 runners identified as "likely doping" by the IAAF in 2016, though 100s if not 1000s are blood doping. Then she chose, to no one's surprise, to join the now banned drug cheat coach and improved even more. Farah 2.0.

Do you have a source for this? I can't find one on Google that names the suspected athletes.

1:56 800m

3:51 1500m - solo at world's

4:12 mile (world record)

8:18 3k

14:22 5k (this is on borrowed time, she just closed in 14:27)

29:06 10k (another world record)

65:13 Half marathon

If she secures an Olympic gold, she's pushing GOAT status, she already has GROAT status (r = range)

Cheater and fraud.

need more information wrote:

Before joining team Salazar Hassan wasn't bad, but she didn't have good training discipline. I remember reading that she said she had trouble taking her training seriously, she was often late from practice and would always rather do something else. I can see how the holistic and disciplined approach of Salazar could have caused big improvements. As others pointed out she lost weight too which may or may not improve performance but is surely not accidental, she was trying harder.

Exactly, I'm curious to see what her training was like before Salazar/Rowbury. Was she just on a small club team in the Netherlands? Having structure and transitioning to a knowledgeable coach who understands what needs to be improved can make a huge difference. I think before she got to Salazar, she was excelling off of just talent. Same with Farah. Both were okay runners who were just outside the medals, but didn't know how to tune the training regimen to maximize potential.

The trigger for Sifan Hassan happened one month after this race:

Women 1500m Diamond League Shanghai May 2019

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1So4iQ2P5ck

where she was humiliated by ARAFI (I see Gudaf Tsegay was there too).

I never understand the psychology of women middle/long distance runners. One month they are good, the following month they drop.

Genzebe Dibaba is a great illustration of inconstant controversial runner.

But Sifan Hassan was enough constant all these last 6 years so wen can give her favors.

Passant wrote:

where she was humiliated by ARAFI

She was not humiliated by Arafi. Arafi won, Sifan didn't.

And you show tremendous disrespect by only writing Arafi's name in capital letters just because you are both Moroccan.

It has been decided, you are a moron.