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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.
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“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.”