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Alberto Salazar’s reaction to Sifan Hassan’s world record

Salazar says Hassan routinely throws up halfway through workouts

Alberto Salazar

Sifan Hassan ran a new world record in the mile on Friday evening in the Brave Like Gabe Mile at the Monaco Diamond League. Her new record of 4:12.33 was set off of a shockingly slow pace, considering how fast the race ultimately was.

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RELATED: Gabriela DeBues-Stafford smashes national mile record in world record setting race

Hassan’s coach, Alberto Salazar has now helped two athletes to mile world records in 2019 alone. He coached Yomif Kejelcha to an indoor mile world record in March and now Hassan to an outdoor world record as well.

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RELATED: WORLD RECORD ALERT: Kejelcha breaks mile record at Boston University

Salazar told FloTrack post-race, “She trains very hard. I probably, other than people like Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, I’ve never seen someone, and perhaps her even more than them, have that ability to push herself in workouts. She will routinely throw up after half of a hard workout. But she’ll throw up four or five times and say, ‘alright I want to keep going, next interval.’ She’s very tough.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjpQ4N6nNuk

Salazar has worked with countless World Championship medallists, Olympic medallists and record holders, saying that Hassan is one of the hardest working athletes he’s ever seen puts her in a very special category.

Hassan’s world record was run off of a negative split, making it even more impressive. Her split through 800m (just under halfway) was a 2:08, on pace for a likely a 4:16 or 4:18. Hassan’s ability to close strong is unparalleled right now and she will certainly be the person to beat at come the World Championships.

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