Athletics news - Double world champ Sifan Hassan seeks new coach after Alberto Salazar ban
ByReuters
Updated 27/10/2019 at 15:11 GMT
Double world champion Sifan Hassan plans to continue to train in Portland despite the closure of the controversial Nike Oregon Project and the four-year doping ban handed to her former coach Alberto Salazar.
PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 30: Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands during the Women's 800m at the Meeting de Paris of the IAAF Diamond League 2018 on June 30, 2018 in Paris, France. (Photo by Andy Astfalck/Getty Images)
Image credit: Getty Images
The Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete said it would be hard to change, with the Olympic Games less than a year away, but she would now seek a new coach.
She did, however, praise Salazar's skills.
“He is the best coach there is, he does the best for his athletes,” she told Dutch broadcaster NOS after finishing second in Sunday’s Valencia half marathon in Spain.
“There is no better coach, which makes the choice now for a new one so much more difficult.
“I want to stay in America because it is difficult to move in an Olympic year. Everything has to be perfect.”
Her agent Jos Hermens added: “We have an eye on two, three, four American coaches, but it must be someone with whom she must click.”
Hermens had advised Hassan to move to Portland after the Rio Olympics and train with Salazar. His four-year ban for doping violations was announced at the world athletics championships in Doha where Hassan completed an unprecedented double in the 1 1,500 and 10,000m.
The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said Salazar was punished for “orchestrating and facilitating prohibited doping conduct” as head coach of the Nike Oregon Project, a camp designed primarily to develop U.S. endurance athletes.
Hassan said after the ban that her career had been thrown into uncertainty but insisted she was clean.
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