When winning the Olympic 1,500m in Tokyo three years ago, Jakob Ingebrigtsen adopted what might be considered the most straightforward race tactic of all. And the most difficult to execute.
In order to win that day, Ingebrigtsen first needed to turn the tables on Timothy Cheruiyot, the reigning world champion from Kenya, who had beaten him in all 10 of their previous meetings before Tokyo, going back to June 2017.
To do that, he’d need to run faster than ever before, which is exactly what the young Norwegian did, running each 400m split slightly faster, before finishing in 3:28.32, breaking the Olympic record by just over three seconds.
His steadily increasing race splits – 56.14 seconds, 55.64, 55.48, with a final 400m in 54.76 – demand incredibly vast reserves of strength and speed with the mindset to match. Cheruiyot was second in 3:29.01, and Britain’s Josh Kerr was third in 3:29.05, still his lifetime best.
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At the time one month shy of his 21st birthday, he was the first Norwegian to win the old blue-riband event, the second youngest winner ever; it was also among the most flawlessly executed races in Olympic history. The last time an Olympic 1,500m was won like that was in 2004, by Hicham El Guerrouj, when the Moroccan runner was a month shy of his 30th birthday.
Now, to defend that title in the Stade de France on Tuesday night, some people are predicting he may well need to beat El Guerrouj’s world record of 3:26.00, set in July 1998.
That’s because in the last two World Championships, in 2022 and 2023, Ingebrigtsen was beaten down the homestretch – by Britain’s Jake Wightman in Oregon 2022, and by Kerr in Budapest last year.
Kerr we know will sit and then try to kick past Ingebrigtsen, who will take the race lead from a long way out and try to run the kick out of Kerr.
Everything points to the 12-man final boiling down to these two: Kerr did beat Ingebrigtsen in the mile at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene in May, their only competitive meeting so far this year.
There was a sneak preview of their final clash in Sunday’s semi-finals, when both were drawn in the same race, Ingebrigtsen cruising to the win in 3:32.38, Kerr right on his heels, less than a tenth of a second behind.
“They should just be expecting one of the most vicious and hardest 1,500m that people have seen in a very long time,” said Kerr afterwards. “I’m ready to go after it. I think we all are. There’s been a lot of talk and words over the last kind of 12 months, or even two years. I’m just looking to settle that a little bit on Tuesday and give it my best performance.”
He’s right about the talking part. Back in May, speaking about his Olympic 1,500m prospects, Ingebrigtsen said: “If I don’t get injured or sick, I think it’s going to be a walk in the park.”
After Kerr ran a two-mile world indoor record last February, clocking 8:00.67, he told Tv2 in Norway he “would have beaten him [Kerr] in that race, blindfolded ... but it’s good that people run better than they have done before.”
That in turn prompted this most excellent headline on the Runner’s World website: “Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Who Lost to Josh Kerr Without a Blindfold, Says He Could Beat Him With a Blindfold.”
This is a high-quality field, but if it does take close to a world record to win on Tuesday, only Ingebrigtsen looks capable of running that.
