World champion Sifan Hassan has made an incredible recovery from a fall at the final bell to win her 1,500-meter heat at the Olympics on Monday.
Hassan picked herself up after getting in a tangle with Kenyan runner Edinah Jebitok at the start of the last lap. She sped around the outside of the pack on the back straight and ended up crossing the line first in 4 minutes, 5.17 seconds to qualify for the semifinals.
It kept alive the Dutch runner’s bid for a rare distance-running treble at the Tokyo Games.
Hassan has qualified to run in the 5,000-meter final later Monday at the Olympic Stadium, when the energy she expended on that last-lap scramble in the 1,500 heats might catch up with her.
She’s expected to battle with two-time world champion Hellen Obiri of Kenya for the 5,000 gold.
Here is what else is happening today:
Greece’s big leap to Gold
Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece has edged Cuba’s Juan Miguel Echevarria for the men’s long jump gold medal with a winning jump on the last attempt.
Tentoglou’s 8.41 meters in the last round equalled Echevarria’s best mark but he won on a countback because he had the better of the next-best jumps.
Echevarria, jumping last, lost rhythm in his run-up and stopped before the board, kneeled on the ground and hit the runway with his hands.
Puerto Rico sets hurdles record
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico has won gold in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, powering ahead of American Keni Harrison.
That kept the United States out of the win column at the Olympic track meet for yet another session.
Camacho-Quinn finished in 12.37 seconds for a .15 second win over the world-record holder, Harrison. Jamaica’s Megan Tapper finished third.
Puerto Rico, a US territory that competes under its own flag at the Olympics, has one more track gold medal than the deepest team at the Games, as the meet approaches its halfway point.
Women Beach Volleyball: US advance to quarterfinals
April Ross and Alix Klineman have advanced to the quarterfinals of the Olympic beach volleyball tournament.
The American “A-Team” beat Cuba 21-17, 21-15 on Monday. The win came a day after two other U.S. teams were ousted in the first knockout round.
After taking the first set, Ross and Klineman lost the first four points in the second. Cuba’s Lidy Echeverria and Leila Martinez led 9-7 when Echeverria was slow to get up after a collision at the net. The Americans took the point, and went on to win the second set as well.
