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'Test me every day' says Salazar runner Hassan after golden double

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AFP Doha
Last Updated : Oct 06 2019 | 9:45 AM IST

Sifan Hassan said she is willing to undergo daily drug testing to prove she is a clean athlete after completing a stunning World Championship double here.

Just days after her coach Alberto Salazar was handed a four-year ban for doping offences, the Ethiopian-born Dutch runner surged to her second gold medal of the championships in the 1,500 metres.

Hassan's blistering winning time of 3min 51.95sec was the sixth fastest in history, and sliced around seven seconds off the 16-year-old championship record.

It came at the end of a tumultuous week for the 26-year-old Hassan, whose joy at a brilliant 10,000m victory last Saturday lasted only a few days before Salazar, her coach at the controversial Nike Oregon Project, was banned.

Salazar's downfall has cast a shadow over the entire Oregon Project training group, whose athletes have won three gold medals in Doha.

Hassan however hit back at the suggestion her performances should now be viewed with suspicion.

"If they want to test me they can test me every single day. Every single day," Hassan declared to reporters at the end of an impassioned press conference.

"I believe in clean sport, I'm always clean, I will always be clean. I believe in the Oregon Project. I've seen Alberto. He's worked really hard and that is what I know."
- 'A constant athlete' - ========================
"I've been a top athlete since 2014," Hassan said. "I've won gold medals indoors, Diamond Leagues, I'm always a constant athlete."
"Do people think if I cheat that I don't get tested? For five or six months when I'm running personal bests, that I don't get tested? For five years I've been a constant athlete."
"It's what makes me angry, I have been clean all my life. I work hard. I'm not an emotional person but it makes me so mad."

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First Published: Oct 06 2019 | 9:45 AM IST

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