Lasted 1km: Coach defends marathon call as breakdown sparks backlash

Sinead Diver lasted a kilometre. The veteran Australian marathon runner, who finished 10th in Tokyo three years ago, had been battling injury but thought she was right to run and was cleared by doctors to compete.

A kilometre in, the 47-year-old – the oldest runner in the field – was bent over the barriers. Her marathon was over before it began, fuelling anger on social media, given there had already been controversy over the selection of the women’s team.

Australian Jessica Stenson ran 13th after taking the lead at one point in a gritty run.Credit: Getty Images

The Australian drama was a sidenote to the fact Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands made history winning gold in the marathon days after also winning bronze in the 5000m and 10,000m. It also deflected from the fact Jess Stenson and Gen Gregson ran powerful races to finish 13th and 24th.

At one point mid-race the pair shared the lead. Stenson had taken front position and was smiling as she called Gregson through to replace her in the lead. They both knew the lead pack would come, but they refused to alter their rhythm out of deference to the elite runners choosing to go at a slower tempo mid-race.

Athletics Australia coach Andrew Faichney said Diver had been battling right-foot problems, but she was medically cleared to compete and had only withdrawn when both legs cramped even before the race.

“I am comfortable with the decision to race. Today was completely unrelated to the plantar fasciitis in her right foot. She cramped in both quads and it started before the race,” Faichney said.

“Obviously, for her to have to finish so soon, it was extreme (cramping). But there was nothing to do with the plantar fasciitis she was completely cleared to run for that. She said her foot was fine it was her cramping quads that were the problem.”

Diver’s early withdrawal prompted a predictable backlash on social media, after the public stoush over team selection for Paris, in which another veteran, Lisa Weightman, who also qualified for the team but was overlooked, protested officially and publicly about her non-selection.

Coincidentally on Sunday Weightman won a half-marathon on the Sunshine Coast in Australia.

Diver, the national record holder, hadn’t been the focus of Weightman, or rather Weightman’s husband’s anger in social media posts, about team selection for that was more directed at Stenson who qualified late after hitting a qualifying time only seven months after the birth of her second child.

As it was Stenson ran a strong race finishing 13th in 2:26.45 while Gregson was 24th in 2:29.56.

“We said that before the race like let’s think of each other throughout and just egg each other on in our heads,” Stenson said.

But the most astonishing achievement was that of Hassan who laid claim to being one of, if not the, best distance women’s runners ever after winning gold in the marathon after the Dutch runner had already won bronze at these Olympics in the 5,000 and 10,000m.

Sifan Hassan is first to cross the line in the marathon in Paris.Credit: Getty Images

In a dramatic final few hundred metres she overtook Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa, the world record holder, who moved across to try to cut her off on a bend and the pair bumped. Hassan nearly went into the barrier but recovered to accelerate away and win in 2:22.55.

More broadly Faichney said Australia’s “amazing” athletics performance at the Olympics – the best by an Australian team since the Melbourne games in 1956 with seven medals – would be the springboard for taking an even bigger next step.

He forecast Australia’s sprinters and relay teams would follow Jess Hull who had smashed the “glass ceiling” of African dominance of middle-distance running and would be next in breaking through to compete with the world’s best.

“It’s just been an amazing 10 days. It’s just incredible. We had our best world championships last year, but it’s not the Olympics, and this is the Olympics, and we’ve come out and won seven medals. Just incredible,” Faichney said.

“We had multiple finalists last Olympics in Tokyo in middle distance, and now in Paris we’ve got a medal,” Faichney said.

“That is not a glass ceiling that we can’t break through. It is now something which is very, very achievable. (Jess Hull has) done it. And you know, we’ve done that in a variety of different events where we haven’t been able to in the past.

“And now we’re achieving those medals. We’ve got a fantastically strong group of sprinters. So, now, the sprints is the area where we’re going to do what we’ve done in the middle distance, you know, we’re going to be able to go and take that, but that’s a future focus.”

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