It was predicted to be the race of the championships, a head-to-head clash between the world’s two best athletes, two runners of Ethiopian extraction battling to bring gold to their adopted countries. And it didn’t disappoint.
The names of Sweden’s world champion Abeba Aregawi and the Netherlands’ world leader Sifan Hissan were in every preview, and they were on every commentators’ lips as they hit the front side-by-side with one lap to go and strode away from the rest of the field down the back straight. This was the clash everyone had hoped for.
It was Aregawi who led with 200m to go but it was Hassan’s name which was first to appear on the giant scoreboard after the 21-year-old powered through the finish line at the end of a 60.81 last lap to deliver her country its first ever gold medal in this event.
It was a near perfect race by the Dutch record holder, reminiscent of Great Britain’s Kelly Holmes in her Athens Olympics prime. Like Holmes in 2004, Hassan bided her time at the back of the pack as the leader, Anna Shchagina of Russia, took them through 400m in 65.95. She was still there after 800m when Britain’s Laura Weightman took on the pace, going through in 2:15.12.
Aregawi seemed to be in the ideal position, comfortably in fourth, out of danger and ready to pounce. But Hassan knew exactly what she was doing. They passed 1200m in 3:18.00 and she started her move with 520m to go, striding past the field down the home straight and going from last to first as she reached the bell.
Aregawi responded immediately and she sped off with Weightman in pursuit. A month ago in Glasgow the pair had battled tooth and nail over the final lap before the Dutchwoman edged ahead in the last two strides to take victory by less than three tenths of a second.
This time she was more decisive, kicking past Aregawi as they entered the home straight and stretching clear to win by almost a second with Weightman more than two seconds back in third. Hassan kissed her hands to her lips as she crossed the line and pointed her fingers at the sky.
“I was sure of my victory with 400m left,” she said. “I wanted to go then but she passed me. I said ‘Ok, I will wait.’
“I beat her in Paris and in Glasgow, so she knew about my speed. At 200 she was pushing but I knew then I was going to win because for me it was slow.
“Now I am unbelievably proud. I cannot describe my emotions. I cannot believe it.”
Hassan’s pride was not just for herself, but for her country too, the nation that had given her a home six years ago, aged 15, when she fled Ethiopia, arriving in the Netherlands as a refugee. At that point she was not an athlete, and had begun studying to be a nurse when she eventually decided to give running a go three years ago.
Immediately she found her talent and moved to the Dutch National Training Centre in Papendal. She made her international breakthrough last summer and ended the season ranked fourth in the world for 3000m.
She gained Dutch citizenship on 19 November and was cleared to compete for Netherlands 10 days later. Nine days after that she won the European Athletics U23 cross country title and this year revised her country’s record books, setting national records for 1500m indoors and out, the latter also a European under-23 record and world lead of 3:57.00.
“I am good at fast races,” she told reporters tonight. “So I was a little bit scared when the race started quite slowly, slow races make me tired.
“That’s why I was at the back. I didn’t want to be in the pack in case anyone fell down. I wanted to stay out of trouble.”
She did that all right – out of trouble and into the record books.
Afterwards, she stood talking to anyone and everyone, too excited to stop, too unused to all the fuss to know what to do next, the Dutch flag hugged tightly around her body.
“I am so proud, so proud of this flag,” she said. “I don’t want to give it back. Not ever.”
She had beaten Sweden’s big hope, a woman who shares her origins and is a friend as well as a rival. They share a manager too, and sometimes even warm up together. Not tonight, though. Tonight Hassan had one thing on her mind.
“I just wanted to win for my country. I just wanted gold, not silver or bronze,” she said. “I am sorry for Sweden but Netherlands wanted gold too. I can’t do both.”
Hassan’s Zurich campaign may not be over yet, for tomorrow she may run the 5000m with another piece of history in the offing, for no one has ever won both events.
“I will see,” she said. “But if I do it I want to fight for gold again. For now, I look forward to a nice ice bath and a good sleep.”