Olympics 2024 LIVE: Sifan Hassan wins extraordinary women’s marathon before Emma Finucane in track cycling

The winning time was 2:22.55. It’s not a quick time, in terms of a marathon, but the course was difficult and it’s been scorching hot making it very testing.

Sifan Hassan came through the test and got over the line. She’s had a remarkable Olympic games, bronze in both the 5000m and 10000m races on the track and now a gold in the marathon!

Assefa makes the move first and puts on the burners but she’s met with an injection of pace from Sifan Hassan. Hassan manages to pull up alongside her.

The two come together and there’s shoulder-to-shoulder contact before Hassan moves into the lead with 100m to go. She turns and sprints up the blue tarp before crossing the line in first place!

Sifan Hassan has won the women’s marathon!

Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa wins silver and Kenya’s Hellen Obiri claims the bronze.

It’s a sprint finish between Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands!

Lokedi has been dropped! She’s falling off the back of the other three who will all claim medals now but which ones?

Amane Beriso Shankule has been dropped so it’s now down to four contenders. The two favourites have to be Obiri and Hassan but Lokedi and Assefa are experienced runners and know how to win marathons.

Obiri has moved into the lead to set this pace and potential attack the final kilometre. Hassan has come on the inside and all four women are running next to each other.

This is coming down to the wire…

The leaders reach the 40km mark, 2.2km to go and still no attack from any of the runners. The closer this gets to the finish the more it plays into the hands of Sifan Hassan who is a great finisher.

This is a hilly course, like the Boston marathon, and Hellen Obiri was a strong winner there. Which way will this race go?

The leaders pass the Eiffel Tower with around 3km to go and it’s still anyone’s game. There are five women competing for three medals.

It could all come down to the final few metres. Will someone make a move before then to stride on and claim the gold?

There’s a pack of five women leading this monster race with Tigst Assefa and Amane Beriso Shankule joined by Sharon Lokedi and Hellen Obiri.

Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands has also caught them up and this group have pulled about 12 seconds ahead of the rest of the field as the end of the race approaches quickly.