LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, August 22—A dazzling pair of middle distance races highlighted the men’s side of the Athletissima Diamond League meeting, delighting a packed crowd of nearly 14,000 in La Pontaise Olympic Stadium. Emmanuel Wanyonyi gave the 800 World Record its closest scare since it was set 12 years ago and Jakob Ingebrigtsen got a measure of revenge against 1500 gold medalist Cole Hocker.
The first of those races wasn’t even a DL event, but organizers put together a boffo 2-lap field that included 5 of the top 6 Paris finishers, lacking only bronze medalist Djamel Sedjati. The rabbit missed the mark a bit — a 49.32 opener wasn’t bad but he lost track of the following runners and when exiting the track went right, forcing Marco Arop far out into lane 2 on the turn.
The Canadian silver medalist stayed wide onto the backstretch, allowing rival Emmanuel Wanyonyi to charge through on the inside as Bryce Hoppel followed in 3rd and Gabriel Tual in 4th. The Kenyan gold medalist showed off an even better finish than he had in the Olympics, sprinting away from Arop decisively to take the win in 1:41.11, a world leader that ties him with Denmark’s Wilson Kipketer for the No. 2 spot on the all-time list. Only three marks by David Rudisha, all WRs at the time, are ahead of Wanyonyi’s latest.
Arop finished in 1:41.72, and Tual outsprinted Hoppel on the stretch, 1:42.30–1:42.63. Hoppel would take little consolation in the No. 4 U.S. time ever.
Said the victor, “I’m so happy to have run that crazy time here.”
The 1500 came originally packaged as a Paris rematch, but in the end the only medalist on the line was Hocker. Ingebrigtsen, having learned from Paris, made sure to go out a tad more conservatively in order to be fresh enough to deal with Hocker’s sprint. Following a pair of rabbits none too closely as they passed the 400 in 55.21 and the 800 in 1:51.14, the Norwegian didn’t take over until the second rabbit dropped after 1000. On his heels was Olympic 5th-placer Hobbs Kessler with Hocker hanging back in 3rd.
Ingebrigtsen passed 1200 in 2:47.07 and Kessler stayed on him until the final turn, when he started slipping as Hocker charged forward. This time, Ingebrigtsen was more than ready, saving enough for a stunning homestretch kick that left the Americans well…
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