Sifan Hassan crossing the line
Every little helps and my feeble contribution to Sifan Hassan’s wonderful victory yesterday occurred as she emerged out of the tunnel that runs under Barnard House in the City of London.
Such amazing races – here are the women passing us at Blackfriars #londonmarathon2023 pic.twitter.com/jbL7kQwc4t
— Henry Tapper (@henryhtapper) April 23, 2023
Within a few minutes, Sifan Hassan had
- Nearly crashed into a motorbike as she doubled back to get a drink after missing the station
- Offered a drink to the world class athletes she had run back to
- Sprinted away from these athletes as if this were a training run
- Won the race – her first marathon
- Conducted an interview with Gabby Loghan that represents everything good with sport
And the great thing is that this was all recorded by the BBC
My contribution?
I was there, with my phone , like hundreds of other spectators, participating in one of the great sporting events anywhere.
I didn’t cheer and I couldn’t clap – phones you know! But I’d been following Sifan Hassan since the start, seen how she hurt early on, how she stopped to do some stretching, how she ran through the pain to rejoin the leading group (which she did only a mile or two before Blackfriars).
And after she passed us, I shared my phone’s stream with people around me and we watched her antics further down the Embankment and her sprint to the line. We even watched her interview with Gabby while waiting for the men and the 48,000 others making their way round the course.
Every little helps!
Sifan Hassan’s contribution
Today I intend to return to running, not the proper running I was doing this time last year, but at least enough for me to do some park runs with friends like Tony Filbin and Niall Ferguson. I feel inspired.
Many will feel inspired that a 30 year old woman can talk with the candor and simplicity of a child about an achievement that is colossal.
Such humility, humanity and femininity. So admirable!
But backed by extraordinary talent, hard work and a capacity to beat pain that had the BBC commentators tut-tutting that she ran past five miles.
Sara Weller’s contribution
There are 48,000 great stories yesterday and I will pick out one
Sara Weller, Chairperson of MaPS , completed the course in a wheelchair with MS. We should be very proud of her and all others, Here’s how she announced her completing the course on social media
Today I completed the London Marathon in my wheelchair to raise money for MS Society.
Wow what a day. I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me. So far we have raised over £150k!
There is still time to donate www.msmuststop.org.uk
Sara Weller and team
