Fatima Hassin achieves lifetime goal, as Murowe wins Francistown Marathon

AT the age of 56 and still going strong, Fatima Hassin has achieved one of her life-time goals after she participated and completed the 2023 London Marathon on Sunday in London, United Kingdom.

Her journey into the decorated London Marathon did not start now as she tried to get a place for four years but failed until she was given a slot for this year’s event after trying one last time.

She completed one of her dream races at a time of 3:49:40 and was motivated by her performance at the Manchester Marathon which she used as part of her preparation for the big race. Struggling to adjust to the different conditions, Hassin did not perform as well as she had hoped at the Manchester event, having fallen sick along the journey.

“I then just pushed on to just finish the race and get my medal. It was one of my worst races in my running journey, I was very disappointed as I had wanted at least a sub four (she finished the race in four hours, 18 minutes).

“Anyways I picked myself up and started to focus on London and prepared myself. The weather report for London kept saying warmer but rain for the day. I was very apprehensive as I did not want to come all this way and had been focusing on my training and then perform dismally again, also I wanted to redeem myself for the Manchester time,” said Hassin.

Hassin had the agenda of running her best race and before the start of the event, there was a sub 3, 50 pacer who was near her and she told herself that she will follow him to 21-kilometres to stay on track.

“I kept near the pacer and was feeling fine and strong. The roads are nice but there were many runners and we were running very close to each other. The support from the crowds on the side of the road was fantastic, screaming and loud music and drums and encouraging everyone.

“At 21-kilometres I still kept the pace with the pacer and I felt strong still so I just kept pushing on. I was so focused I didn’t even see the highlighted landmarks which is sad but I wanted to perform better. After 30-kilometres I was still feeling okay and I was glad I didn’t get sick,” said Hassin.

She added that at 37-kilometres, she told herself that only five kilometres are remaining and can’t stop now and was still with the pacer before she tried pushing ahead at 40-kilometres to get a strong finish with just two kilometres remaining.

“I was very happy to cross the finish line of one of the world’s most prestigious marathons, my first World Abbot Major Marathon. The experience is one of the highlights of my running journey, it is totally epic, I would do it again for sure,” she said.

She believes this was her first step in doing the six world major marathons. Apart from London, the other five major marathons are Tokyo, Boston, Chicago, New York and Berlin.

Meanwhile, another Zimbabwean runner, Patience Murowe won the women’s title at the 2023 Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) Francistown Marathon whose finish point was the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium in Francistown, Botswana. She finished her race at a time of two hours and 49 minutes to fly the Zimbabwean flag up high in the neighbouring country. Moses Tarakinyu took the men’s 21.1km Senior Male 20-39 years.

Another Zimbabwean, Rutendo Joan Nyahora finished in position 13 at the Vienna City Marathon in Austria, which was also held on Sunday. She finished her race at a time of 02:36:07. — @brandon_malvin