Track Superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen Wins Again
It’s been an eventful few weeks for 1500 meter juggernaut Jakob Ingebrigtsen after he stunningly failed to medal in the event at theParis Olympics. Ingebrigtsen was offered an opportunity for redemption this past Friday as he faced off against many of the same competitors from the Olympics in the high stakes Diamond League Final at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium.
Ingebrigtsen prevailed, outkicking Olympic Champion Cole Hocker and 2019 World Champion Timothy Cheruiyot to notch his 3rd straight Diamond League Final victory in the 1500 with a time of 3:30.37. This comes just after he set the 3,000 meter world record on August 25th.
The story coming in was the showdown between Hocker and Ingebrigtsen. Hocker overcame 30-1 odds in the Olympics running 3:27.65 for an Olympic Record and beating Ingebrigtsen and the rest of the field in a shocking upset. Hocker started out the race in a tough position, occupying the second lane for much of the first lap.
He made a late push towards the end of the race, as he tends to do with his notoriously fast kick, but it wasn’t enough to catch Ingebrigtsen or Cheruiyot. Cheruiyot, a 4-time winner of the competition, made a case for himself. He was within a stride of Ingebrigtsen heading into the final 200 meters before Jakob turned on the jets. Cheruiyot also found himself having to make some inadvertent movements throughout his race. He was forced to shove pacer Boaz Kiprugut out of the way as the pacer attempted to evade the passing runners, and he got tripped up with American Yared Nuguse with only about 350 meters to go. Nuguse was far more affected by the trip, as he fell from second all the way down to sixth. Given Nuguse’s bronze med- al in the 1500 meters at the Olympic Games, this was probably the biggest disappointment of the race. Nuguse finished behind lesser known runners Azeddine Habz of France and Jochem Vermeulen of Belgium.
Rounding out the field was Reynold Cheruioyt of Kenya, Narve Gilje Nordås of Norway, Brian Komen of Kenya, Oliver Hoare of Australia and Elliot Giles of Great Britain. This race completed an exciting 2024 season for track and field and was instrumental in upholding an era of dominance for Jakob Ingebrigtsen.