Can Sifan complete Sydney mission?

There are two occasions every year when the Sydney Harbour Bridge is closed to traffic.

One is the city’s world-famous New Year celebrations, when the iconic structure is lit up by a fireworks display that’s the envy of the world.

The other is the TCS Sydney Marathon presented by ASICS.

By recruiting Sifan Hassan for his first race as part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, race director Wayne Larden has almost guaranteed that, this year, there will be more than one pyrotechnic display in his home town.

The Dutch superstar is a one-woman running soap opera. In her track career she cut a swathe through the middle distances without compare, but when she switched to the roads, it was as though someone turned the drama dial all the way up.

Her 2023 debut in London featured a stoppage to stretch a troublesome quad that lost her more than two minutes to one of the most formidable fields ever assembled.

As she improbably wrestled her way back to the leaders, she swerved across the street to pick up a drink bottle and nearly ran straight into an official race motorbike, before turning on those track afterburners to win in epic fashion. She was as dumbfounded as the rest of us.

A quick return to the track for the Budapest World Championships that year yielded mixed results, punctuated with an unthinkable stumble in the home straight of the 10,000m with gold in her grasp.

She then pitched up in Chicago a few weeks later, switching back to marathon mode, and decimated the competition to claim what was then the second fastest time in history.

An off-day in Tokyo in March 2025 followed, finishing fifth, but she was very much ‘on’ a few months later on a sizzling day in Paris.

Capping an eye-watering Olympic track schedule with a tilt at the marathon on the final weekend, she cossetted herself away in the pack on a boiling morning until the grueling hills were behind her, then unleashed a dash for the finish the ended with an elbows-out sprint with Tigist Assefa.

It was a gold medal run for the ages.

This year in London, she could not pull any more rabbits from hats, finishing third behind Assefa and Joyciline Jepkosgei.

She arrives in Sydney with London her only performance this year of any distance, leaving her condition for this inaugural Major something of a mystery.

She faces former world record-holder and five-time Major winner Brigid Kosgei, plus last year’s Sydney champion Workenesh Edesa, who dismantled the all-comers record here last year with 2:21:41.

That’s an indication of how tough Sydney’s course is, but also suggests that, with time goals perhaps secondary in the minds of the leading athletes, tactics will come into play.

If Hassan’s brief but beguiling marathon career to date tells her opponents anything, it is to try and do away with the 32-year-old before she can turn it into a sprint.

They will also be well aware that that is easier said than done.

Don't miss Issue 11 of Majors Magazine! Sydney course guide, two-time Major winner Deena Kastor on getting her seventh star in Sydney and more.

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