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Cole Hocker of the United States produced one of the great shocks of the Paris 2024 Games on Tuesday (6) as he won the 1500m title in an Olympic record of 3:27.65 after gatecrashing a party that was supposed to be all about bitter rivals Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the defending champion, and the Briton who had beaten the Norwegian to the world title a year earlier, Josh Kerr.
Kerr looked set to triumph once again as he repeated his Budapest tactic of overtaking Ingebrigtsen on the outside around the final bend and then pushing for home. But this time the picture was compounded by another presence in the inside lane – Hocker – and the Norwegian found himself assailed on both sides.
The 23-year-old from Indiana was flying, and while Kerr did everything he could to upgrade the bronze he had won behind Ingebrigtsen in Tokyo to gold, he could not resist the US runner and took silver in a national record of 3:27.79.
Meanwhile Ingebrigtsen, fading, came under pressure from a second US athlete, Yared Nuguse, who came through at the last for bronze in a personal best of 3:27.80.
Ingebrigtsen, who had hoped to become only the second man to win consecutive Olympic 1500m titles after Sebastian Coe’s victories in 1980 and 1984, clocked 3:28.24. Not even on the podium.
Hocker had made a quiet entrance to the arena, but he ran like a man possessed to take almost three seconds off his personal best of 3:30.59.
There was an echo in his performance of the surprise 1500m win by compatriot Matthew Centrowitz at the Rio 2016 Games. The latter had won the world indoor title earlier in the year; Hocker took silver at this year’s World Indoor Championships.
Three years ago Hocker beat Centrowitz at the US Trials, then finished sixth at the Olympics in a then PB of 3:31.40.
SOURCE: WORLD ATHLETICS
