IN PUTTING TOGETHER another impressive win against some of the Olympic medalists, Paris 4th-placer Jakob Ingebrigtsen continued to complicate the end-of-year World Rankings situation in the 1500.
In the first two laps, Zürich winner Yared Nuguse led Ingebrigtsen and gold medalist Cole Hocker in a line behind the two pacemakers, who passed the posts in 55.74 and 1:52.70. The clip was a tad off the 1:52.0 that had been requested to put the leaders on a 3:30 pace.
Over the next half lap Ingebrigtsen started to show some impatience, and at 1000m he couldn’t hold himself back anymore. He passed on the outside just as the second rabbit was attempting to veer off. They nearly collided, with the rabbit, Kenya’s Boaz Kiprugut, bouncing back to the left and inadvertently obstructing Timothy Cheruiyot until he could safely extricate himself.
Ingebrigtsen headed the charge past the bell, ahead of Cheruiyot and Nuguse, with Hocker still in 4th. As they approached 1200, Cheruiyot moved past Nuguse and their legs made contact; the American nearly went down and lost his momentum. The 4-time DL Final winner, however, chased after Ingebrigtsen, who had passed 1200 in 2:49.89.
On the backstretch, the Kenyan brought himself to Ingebrigtsen’s shoulder, but the defending champion surged and found some breathing room. On the final stretch he stayed comfortably ahead of his challengers, winning in 3:30.37. Hocker closed fast but could not get past Cheruiyot, who stayed 0.01 ahead at the line, 3:30.93–3:30.94. Nuguse finished 6th in 3:32.30.
“My race went really good,” said the winner. “The goal was obviously to finish first and I did that.”
Cheruiyot, who was only 11th in Paris, seemed pleased. “I was expecting to run well and I also was in a good position during the race. However, Jakob was better today.”
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