Another title for Ingebrigtsen
Norwegian wins fourth Diamond League championship with win in 1,500 in Brussels
Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s ability to bounce back from a loss was on full display on the first night of the Diamond League final in Brussels on Friday when he won the men’s 1,500 meters over a field that included the American duo of Olympic gold medalist Cole Hocker and bronze medalist Yared Nuguse.
Eight days earlier, Nuguse had outkicked Ingebrigtsen in a highly-anticipated race in the Weltklasse meet in Zurich that also included Hocker and Olympic silver medalist Josh Kerr of Great Britain.
Yet it was the 23-year-old Norwegian who moved into the lead with 500 meters left in the Memorial van Damme meet at King Baudouin Stadium in the Belgian capital on Friday night and then repelled every challenge that was thrown at him during the remainder of the contest while on his way to a winning time of 3:30.37 and his third consecutive Diamond League title in the 1,500 and fourth overall.
Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya placed second in 3:30.93 to finish a hundredth of a second in front of Hocker, while Nuguse placed sixth in 3:32.30 after he was inadvertently tripped by Cheruiyot with about 320 meters left in the race.
“My race went really good, the goal was obviously to finish first and I did that,” Ingebrigtsen said in quotes on the meet website. “For the whole season, I had some good races and some bad races so I hope to perform better next year. I still have some improvements to do and to just keep working hard. And for now, off season starts and I'm going to spend some time with my family.”
NOTE - Several track and field/athletics sites have reported in the last few hours that Ingebrigtsen will run in the Copenhagen Half Marathon in Denmark on Sunday.
One would think that Ingebrigtsen regards his fourth-place finish in the 1,500 in the Olympic Games — after he entered the home straightaway in the lead — as one of his bad races. But it was impressive to see the way he rebounded from what had to have been a huge disappointment.
First, he won the Olympic title in the 5,000 meters four days after the 1,500 and then he clocked 3:27.83 to win a 1,500 in the Athletissima meet in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 22 while finishing more than two seconds in front of second-place Hocker.
Then came a scintillating performance in the 3,000 meters three days after that when he took more than three seconds off the world record with his 7:17.55 clocking in the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Chorzow, Poland.
Although Nuguse pulled away from him during the final 40 meters of the race in Zurich, Ingebrigtsen did not seem upset by the loss as he had said previously that he was recovering from an illness he had come down with after his world record run.
Friday’s race differed from many of Ingebrigtsen’s previous Diamond League races in that he ran behind Nuguse for the first kilometer of the contest.
Ingebrigtsen will typically follow a pacesetter or two for the first 800 to 1,000 meters of his 1,500-meter races on the Diamond League circuit before taking over the lead and then daring anyone to pass him.
Mounir Akbache of France led the field through the first 400 meters in 55.74 seconds in Brussels before second pacesetter Boaz Kiprugut of Kenya came through two laps in 1:52.70.
Nuguse, Ingebrigtsen, Hocker, and Cheruiyot continued to follow Kiprugut through most of the following turn, but Ingebrigtsen surged into the lead just before entering the home straightaway for the second-to-last time.
Ingebrigtsen led Nuguse, Cheruiyot, and Hocker as he started the bell lap, but Cheruiyot appeared to accidentally clip Nuguse from the side about 80 meters later, and as a result, Nuguse was in fourth place when Ingebrigtsen came through 1,200 meters in 2:49.89.
Cheruiyot, who had finished second to Ingebrigtsen in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, tried to pass him heading into the final turn but the Norwegian held him off. Hocker was in third place at that point in the race, but Nuguse was starting to fade.
Ingebrigtsen had a stride lead over Cheruiyot midway through the curve, with Hocker another stride behind, but neither one of them was able to make a serious run at Ingebrigtsen in the home straightaway and he widened his advantage significantly during the last 50 meters of the contest.
Cheruiyot was pleased with his performance after having faded to 11th place in the Olympic final.
“Today was a good race,” he said. “I was expecting to run well and I also was in a good position during the race. However, Jakob was better today. So congratulations to him. Now it's time for a break and I will spend some time with my family.”
Hocker, who finished second, third, and third in his three races since his upset victory in the Olympics, was also looking forward to returning home.
“This was my third race after Paris and I knew it was going to be a lot,” he said. “But I'm happy with how I ran today and it's good preparing for next season because I almost became the Olympic champion overnight. So it felt like a baptism by fire, but I dreamed of it for so long, so happy every race to follow.”
Like Ingebrigtsen, Mondo Duplantis of Sweden won his fourth Diamond League title in the men’s meet. But unlike Ingebrigtsen, Duplantis has not been beaten in the pole vault this year as he won all four of his indoor meets before going 11-0 outdoors.
The two-time Olympic champion was very efficient as he set a meet record of 6.11 meters (20 feet ½ inch) on his third jump of the competition before calling it a day due to the cool and damp conditions.
Olympic bronze medalist Emmanouil Karalis of Greece finished second at 5.82 (19-1). Ben Broeders of Belgium and Olympic silver medalist Sam Kendricks of the U.S. also cleared 5.82, but they tied for third because they had more total misses during the competition than Karalis.
Duplantis, who set three world records this season while raising the global best to 6.26 (20-6 ½), cleared 5.62 (18-5¼), 5.92 (19-5), and 6.11 (20-0½) on his first attempts on Friday.
“My legs felt terrible tonight and I'm just really tired,” he said.
He added that his 100-meter match race against Karsten Warholm of Norway on Sept. 4, followed by a regular pole vault competition the following day “took a lot more from my body than I expected. With 6m11 I got a good result, but the world record wasn't meant to be tonight.”
Matthew Denny of Australia and Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia each won their second Diamond League titles on Friday, with Denny’s win coming in the discus and Aregawi placing first in the 5,000 meters.
Denny had surprised many when he won the Diamond League Final in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, last September. But his victory in the Memorial van Damme was not regarded as much of an upset as he had placed first, second, or third in 13 of his 15 prior competitions this season.
The Olympic bronze medalist’s win was even more satisfying to him because his winning throw of 69.96 (229-6) was a meet record and bettered his previous national record of 69.35 (227-6) that he had set earlier this year.
Olympic silver medalist Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania finished second at 68.86 (225-11), followed by Lukas Heibhaidinger of Austria at 66.52 (218-3).
Denny unleashed his top effort in the first round and he also had throws of 68.77 (225-7) in the second round and 68.36 (224-3) in the fifth.
“It’s nice to go back to back and take the win again today, it feels really great,” Denny said. “I am in great shape so I knew something great was going to happen but I knew I had to give it my all to win from these guys today. I'm just super happy. It's been a long year and then to finish with a national record and just a few cm's short of 70m.”
Aregawi, the Olympic silver medalist in the 10,000, won the 5,000 in 12:43.66 after previously winning the event in the 2021 Diamond League Final in Zurich that was run on the streets.
Compatriots Hagos Gebrhiwet and Talahun Bekele finished second and third with times of 12:44.25 and 12:45.63, respectively.
After Thomas Vanoppen of Belgium paced the field through the first kilometer in 2:34.16 and the second in 5:08.19, Yomif Kejelcha of Ethiopia was in first place when he came through 3,000 meters in 7:42.07 and Bekele was in the lead when he passed 4,000 in 10:16.53.
Aregawi was in the lead with a lap and a half left and he never relinquished it.
Gebrhiwet, who had run the second-fastest time in history with his 12:36.73 clocking in the the Bislett Games in Oslo on May 30, passed Bekele midway down the final backstretch and made up ground on Aregawi around the final curve. But his younger teammate pulled away from him in the home straightaway while recording the third-fastest performance of his career.
“The crowd was amazing, so I’m thankful for the support today,” Aregawi said. “It was cold, very cold. But losing was not an option today, so very happy with the win here in Brussels.”
In the five other men’s events contested on Friday, Amos Serem of Kenya won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 8:06.90, Ackeem Blake of Jamaica took the 100 in 9.93, Sasha Zhoya of France placed first in the 110 high hurdles in 13.16, Charlie Dobson of Great Britain came from behind to win the 400 in 44.49, and Tajay Gayle of Jamaica won the long jump at 8.28 (27-2).
Serem’s victory in the steeplechase snapped a 15-race winning streak for Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco, the winner of the last two Olympic and World titles.
Pacesetter Abderrafia Bouassel of Morocco led the field through the first kilometer in a crisp 2:40.89, but the tempo lagged in the second kilometer as Serem was in first place when he came through 2,000 meters in 5:28.97.
He was still in the lead with a lap to go and though El Bakkali moved into second place down the backstretch, he was unable to overtake Serem, who hurdled the barrier at the final water jump and never allowed the Moroccan to mount a serious challenge after that.
Serem’s time of 8:06.90 left him nearly two seconds ahead of El Bakkali at 8:08.60. Mohamed Amin Jhinaoui of Tunisia finished third in 8:09.68.
“Today, the race was so good. I was competing against the Olympic champion El Bakkali, and I won,” said Serem, who placed 14th in the Olympic Games. “I felt really great today, I believed I could but I didn’t expect it. But I am so happy to close my season like this and to hopefully come back next year. I will prepare for next year and try to be even better!”
Blake had been eliminated in the semifinals of the 100 in the Olympics, but his 9.93 clocking gave him a solid margin of victory over the American duo of Christian Coleman and Olympic bronze medalist Fred Kerley, who ran 10.00 and 10.01, respectively.
Zhoya had injury issues for much of the season, but his 13.16 clocking in the high hurdles left him six hundredths of a second in front of second-place Lorenzo Simonelli of Italy at 13.22 and eight hundredths up on third-place Freddie Crittenden of the U.S. at 13.24.
It was Zhoya’s third victory in four races after he had been eliminated in the semifinals of the Olympic Games.
He had run a personal best of 13.10 in placing second behind Olympic champion Grant Holloway’s winning time of 12.99 in the Weltklasse meet before running 13.22 to edge the American for the victory in the Gala dei Castelli meet in Bellinzona, Switzerland, on Monday.
Holloway was initially scheduled to race in Brussels, but he had announced in a social media post that he would be not be competing in the meet because of “a failure to reach agreements on the terms of my participation between my team and the meeting directors of the Diamond League.”
Olympic silver medalist Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain was the leading entrant in the men’s 400, but he began to slow about 80 meters into the race and he pulled up about 40 meters later.
Dobson, who had been eliminated in the semifinals of the Olympics, was in seventh place at the 300-meter mark, nearly a half second back of first-place Vernon Norwood of the U.S. But he had moved into fourth place behind Norwood, Kirani James of Grenada, and Olympic bronze medalist Muzala Samukanga of Zambia with 50 meters left in the race and he proceeded to pass all of them before crossing the finish line in 44.49.
James placed second in 44.63, followed by Samukanga in 44.69 and Norwood in 44.78.
Like Blake, Zhoya, and Dobson, Gayle had failed to advance to the final of the Olympic Games in his specialty, the long jump. However, he had the two longest marks of the competition on Friday.
His winning jump of 8.28 (27-2) had come in the second round and he also leaped 8.17 (26-9¾) on his final attempt.
Simon Ehammer of Switzerland placed second at 8.16 (26-9¼) and two-time Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece finished third at 8.15 (26-9).
It was the second consecutive loss for Tentoglou after he had won eight previous meets.
You can click here for complete results from Friday.
You can click here for an event schedule and start lists for today’s meet.