American miler beats Norwegian plus Cole Hocker, Niels Laros and Josh Kerr while Beatrice Chebet, Letsile Tebogo and Grant Holloway also impress at the Weltklasse
The latest chapter in an epic season for the men’s 1500m saw Yared Nuguse make his mark as he out-sprinted Jakob Ingebrigtsen on a rainswept night in Zurich to win in 3:29.21.
With Olympic champion Cole Hocker third, Niels Laros fourth and world champion Josh Kerr fifth, it would be natural to assume that this was the finest race of Nuguse’s career.
“Not really,” he said. “I think my Olympic bronze medal in Paris was better.”
Paris is certainly where it mattered most in 2024, but the Weltklasse on Thursday (Sept 5) is still one of the premier meetings in the world and the metric mile had all the major contenders present.
One of the beauties of the event this year is that it has been fairly unpredictable, too, with the leading contenders all evenly matched. Hocker wasn’t the favourite to win in Paris but he sprinted to glory in style. No one really expected Nuguse to win in Zurich either, especially as he was beaten by Elliot Giles in a road mile four days earlier in Düsseldorf.
Giles was merely the second pacemaker in Zurich as he took over from Zan Rudolf’s 55.61 and 1:51.17 opening two laps. On the third lap the pace didn’t drop either and Giles dropped out at the bell (2:46.3). At that point Ingebrigtsen took it up with Nuguse on his shoulder and then a gap of two or three metres to Kerr, Hocker and Laros.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Getty)
Around the final bend, Ingebrigtsen and Nuguse were clear with the American sitting ominously on the Norwegian’s shoulder. Into the home straight he kicked past as Ingebrigtsen clocked 3:29.52 for second with Hocker producing his usual nifty finish to take third in 3:30.46, Laros fourth in 3:31.23 and Kerr a slightly jaded fifth in 3:31.46.
“I felt really good,” said Nuguse. “The hype coming into it was ‘hang in for dear life’. But I had to put my position to win and then right behind Jakob where I could stay calm and relaxed coming into that last 200m.”
After smashing the world 3000m record in Silesia late last month, Ingebrigtsen came down with an infection. “When I woke up this morning it was better than yesterday,” he said, “but when I looked at myself in the mirror I looked like shit with watery eyes.
“It’s not an ideal position to be in but good enough (to race) and I felt pretty strong. I easily could have hit…
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