LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — Sifan Hassan said the London Marathon is “in my heart” as she gets ready to return to the scene of an extraordinary debut in the distance two years ago.

The Dutch athlete, born in Ethiopia, marked her maiden marathon by winning the 2023 race in London with a stunning display.

Hassan triumphed despite stopping twice on the streets of the British capital and trailing the leader by 28 seconds at one stage.

The 32-year-old has since proved that victory was no fluke, winning gold at last year’s Paris Olympics in a Games women’s record time of two hours, 22 minutes and 55 seconds — a feat she achieved barely 36 hours after taking bronze in the 10,000 meters.

Now Hassan, who did not compete in the 2024 London Marathon, is looking forward to returning to a course filled with happy memories when this year’s edition is held on 27 April.

“If you look back, London is in my heart,” she told reporters.

“It’s amazing, it is almost kind of like Paris.”

“I thought I don’t know what I’m going to do, but sometimes it is a miracle, sometimes a miracle happens.”

She added: “I was so scared of (the) marathon, contemplating: ‘Am I going to finish, is it going to hurt, what’s going to happen?’ Everybody’s going to say: ‘Oh she’s no good, why’s she tried that?’”

Hassan won three Olympic medals at Tokyo 2020, taking gold in the 5,000m and 10,000m as well as bronze in the 1500m and added to her collection with three more in Paris, including bronze in the 5,000m.

But she still has career goals she wants to achieve ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.