Timothy Cheruiyot handing over the Kenyan bracelet to Jakob Ingebrigtsen after the 1500m final. #Athletics @RunBlogRun pic.twitter.com/C830pJKAgV
— Justin Lagat 🇰🇪 (@kenyanathlete) August 7, 2021
In Tokyo, it became wonderfully clear, that Olympic track & field, was, once again, a global sport. With almost 200 countries qualifying athletes into athletics, it became clear that our sport is the most diverse, most universal and least expensive sport to get involved with. In the 2021 Olympics, the 100th country (Burkina-Faso, with Hugues Fabrice Zango, TJ) medaled in our sport.
The men’s 1,500m was a wonderful race, and Matt Wisner caught it right here.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen Wins Deepest Olympic 1500 Ever in New Olympic Record
By Matt Wisner
8/7/2021
Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the 20-year-old from Norway, made an aggressive and decisive move past Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot in the final 100 meters to secure the Olympic gold medal in 3:28.32.
Ingebrigtsen had raced Cheruiyot 12 times before, and Cheruiyot won all 12. Evidently, the 13th time’s the charm.
Cheruiyot, 25, celebrated with Ingebrigtsen at the finish line. “I said, if someone beats me today, I will give him my bracelet,” Cheruiyot told the media. “So Jakob beat me and I give it to him.”
This 1500 meter was the deepest race in Olympic history. The top six men all ran faster than the previous Olympic Record of 3:31.46, which was set in the semifinal by Kenya’s Abel Kipsang, who placed fourth in the final.
The depth is a testament to the leaders’ ambition from the gun. Ingebrigtsen led the race for the first lap, and he set a quick pace: 56.4 seconds. The field had already begun to string out, one behind another, nearly all running on the rail in Lane One.
Cheruiyot took over the lead after the opening lap and cranked down the pace. He came through 800 meters in 1:51 and continued to speed up.
Cheruiyot was leading coming into the final 100 meters, but Ingebrigtsen exploded past him down the homestretch. Ingebrigtsen peeked over his shoulder to make sure he’d secured the win. And he had: by seven-tenths of a second.
Ingebrigtsen’s 3:28.32 is a new Olympic Record and a European Record.
Ingebrigtsen famously trains with his family; his brothers are also both Olympians, and they’re coached by his father. “This is not me winning this race. If it wasn’t for my brothers, my family and my fiancée, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this,” Ingebrigtsen told the media. “It’s a whole team around me that’s incredible.”
Cheruiyot finished second in 3:29.01. Great Britain’s Josh Kerr finished in 3:29.05 for third.
Like Ingebrigtsen, Cole Hocker is also a fast 20-year-old. Hocker was the only American in the field, and he finished in sixth in 3:31.40, under the previous Olympic record. He now holds the fastest American time ever run at the Olympics.
“I’m stoked with that result,” Hocker told the media. “Knowing that I was able to not just get into the final but to really mix it up with the greatest in the sport is just an incredible feeling.”
Hocker ran a personal best of 3:33.87 in the semifinal before besting that time by another two seconds in the final. The University of Oregon star is now the No. 3 fastest collegiate on the all-time, all-dates list.
The full results of the men’s 1500 are here.
