Hocker takes down the Big Two
American outkicks Kerr and Ingebrigtsen while setting Olympic record in 1,500 meters
Cole Hocker, a runner who had a breakthrough performance in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in late June, made a gargantuan leap in the men’s 1,500 meters in the Olympic Games in Paris on Tuesday when he won a race that most prognosticators expected to be duel between defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and reigning World champion Josh Kerr of Great Britain.
Hocker’s time of 3 minutes 27.65 seconds bettered the Olympic record of 3:28.32 that Ingebrigtsen ran in the Games in Tokyo in 2021 and crushed his personal best of 3:30.59 that he set in winning the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon.
The time also moved him to seventh on the all-time performer list, while second-place Kerr, who set a British record of 3:27.79, and third-place Nuguse, who ran 3:27.80, moved to eighth and ninth, respectively.
Ingebrigtsen, who had lowered his European record in the 1,500 to 3:26.73 last month, finished fourth in 3:28.24 after having led the race from the 120- to the 1,450-meter mark.
If you would like to read more about Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse, who won the gold and bronze medals in the men’s 1,500 meters in the Olympic Games on Tuesday, you can click here for a feature about Hocker and here for a feature about Nuguse.
Hocker’s performance in the Trials was particularly significant to him because he had surged past Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler with 250 meters left in the race while on his way to running the final 400 meters in a sizzling 52.63 seconds. The 23-year-old runner had always been known for having a big kick, but he usually waited until the last 150 meters to unleash it.
However, he said in a post post-race interview with Lewis Johnson of NBC Sports that he was stronger that he had ever been and that strength allowed him to attack from further out than he had before.
He later said in a telephone interview last month that he had viewed himself as one of the top three 1,500 runners in the world for three years, but injuries had interfered with his progression. He said this year was the first since 2021 that there had been no interruptions in his training and he was super motivated. He added that “I pretty much know my value and how good I am. I just need to execute.”
His execution was nearly flawless on Tuesday in a race in which seven of the top nine runners set personal bests and the first six ran under 3:30.
The ever-confident Ingebrigtsen, who recently said that defending his Olympic title would be “a piece of cake” if he was healthy, had taken the lead heading into the first turn of the race, and according to splits on meet website, he clocked 54.9 seconds for the first lap and 1:51.5 for 800 meters.
Kerr was in third place at that point in the race, with Kessler, Nuguse, and Hocker running in fifth, sixth, and seventh.
Ingebrigtsen was still in the lead at 1,200 meters in 2:47.3, but he was being closely followed by Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, the silver medalist in Tokyo, Kerr, Nuguse, Hocker and Kessler.
Kessler had begun to drop back by the end of the backstretch and Cheruiyot had really begun to fade, but it was Ingebrigtsen who led Kerr, Hocker, and Nuguse two thirds of the way through the final curve.
Hocker briefly tried to pass Ingebrigtsen on the inside of lane one with about 120 meters left, but he had to back off when there wasn’t enough space. However, it wasn’t long before Ingebrigtsen moved into lane two at the start of the home straightaway in an effort to fend off Kerr, who was running to his right.
That left lane one open for Hocker and he drew even with second-place Ingebrigtsen with about 40 meters to go and then passed first-place Kerr with about 15 meters left before throwing up his arms in victory just before he crossed the finish line.
Nuguse made a late rush pass Ingebrigtsen and just missed catching Kerr at the line.
Behind the front four, Kessler finished fifth in a personal best of 3:29.45 to move to fourth on the all-time U.S. performer list and 19-year-old Niels Laros of the Netherlands placed sixth in a national record of 3:29.54.
“That’s an unbelievable feeling,” Hocker said in a World Athletics post. “I just felt like I was getting carried by the stadium and God. My body just kind of did it for me. My mind was all there and I saw that finish line.
“Winning gold was my goal this entire year. I wrote that down and I repeated it to myself even if I didn’t believe it.
“My performances showed me that I was capable of running 3:27, whatever it took. I knew I was a medal contender, and I knew that if I get it right, it would be a gold medal. I’ve been saying that.”
Afterward, Ingebrigtsen said “It was the race I expected. I felt extremely good, and that’s why I pushed the pace a little too hard. Of course, it’s not what I was hoping for. I can only blame myself. It’s a difficult game, balancing your energy. It’s difficult to get 100% of that.
“The others did a great race. This was a risk I was going to take.”
The victory by Hocker was the fourth by an American in Olympic history and came eight years years after Matthew Centrowitz Jr. had won the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro in a big upset.
In addition, the 1-3-5 finish by Hocker, Nuguse, and Kessler was the best by a U.S. trio in the 1,500 since the 1904 Games in St. Louis when Jim Lightbody, Frank Verner, and Lacey Hearn swept the medals in a race in which seven of the nine runners were Americans.
In addition to the men’s 1,500, finals were also contested on Tuesday in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, 200, and hammer throw, and in the men’s long jump.
Winfred Yavi of Bahrain set an Olympic record in winning the steeplechase, while Gabby Thomas of the U.S. won the 200, Camryn Rogers of Canada took the hammer, and Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece won his second consecutive title in the men’s long jump.
The 24-year-old Yavi had won the steeplechase in both the World Athletics Championships and the Diamond League Final last year, but she had struggled to a ninth-place finish in her season-opening race in the Prefontaine Classic on May 25. However, she entered the Olympics on an upswing as she had run 9:03.68 in winning the Meeting de Paris Diamond League meet on July 7.
World record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech of Kenya had led the field through the first kilometer in a quick 2:55.1, but the pace had slowed some when defending champion Peruth Chemutai of Uganda came through 2,000 meters in 5:57.6.
Yavi had run in fifth or sixth place for much of the race up to that point, but she had moved into third place with two laps to go and she was still running behind Chemutai and Chepkoech with a lap left.
However, Chepkoech began to fall back around the second-to-last turn and it was a two-woman race for first as Chemutai led Yavi down the backstretch.
She was still in the lead entering the last turn and over the final water jump. But Yavi pulled even with her clearing the final barrier in the home straightaway and then pulled away from her after that.
Her winning time of 8:52.76 broke the Olympic record of 8:58.81 set by Gulnara Galkina-Samitova of Russia in 2008, and was the second fastest of her career and the fourth fastest in history.
It also came in an historically deep race in which Chemutai placed second in a national record of 8:53.34, followed by Faith Cherotich of Kenya in a personal best of 8:55.15, and Alice Finot of France in a European record of 8:58.67.
Sembo Almayew of Ethiopia finished fifth in 9:00.83, followed by Chepkoech in 9:04.24.
Chemutai’s time was the seventh fastest in history and moved her to fifth on the all-time performer list, while Cherotich became the seventh-fastest performer ever and Finot the 11th.
In addition, the third- through 12th-place finishers recorded the fastest times ever for their respective places.
“This is a dream come true. It has been such a hard journey to get to this point,” Yavi said in a World Athletics post. “In the final I was expecting something good. I just felt good about the race. I believed in myself, that I had that finishing speed.”
Thomas had entered the Olympics as the favorite in the women’s 200 meters. But Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia appeared as though she could be a threat to her gold medal aspirations after her runaway victory in the 100 last Saturday when her 10.72-second clocking left her a whopping .15 seconds ahead of reigning World champion Sha’Carri Richardson of the U.S. in second place.
However, Thomas dominated the final on Tuesday, as she entered the straightaway with a small lead over Alfred and 2019 World champion Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain before expanding her advantage during the second half of the race.
Her winning time of 21.83 seconds left her well in front of Alfred, who finished second in 22.08.
Brittany Brown the U.S. closed well to win a tight battle for the bronze medal as her 22.20 clocking left her just in front of Asher-Smith, who ran 22.22, fellow Brit Daryll Neita, who timed 22.23, and Nigerian Favour Ofili, who crossed the finish line in 22.24.
The 27-year-old Thomas, who won the bronze medal in the Games in Tokyo in 2021 and the silver medal in the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last year, has been hyper-consistent during the last month and a half as her 21.83 clocking on Tuesday followed a 21.86 effort in the semifinals on Monday.
She also ran 21.78 and 21.81 in the semifinals and final, respectively, in the U.S. Olympic Trials in late June, and 21.82 in a Diamond League meet in London on July 20 when she had to overtake Alfred (21.86) in the final 20 meters of the race.
“I’m really in disbelief because having an Olympic gold medal is something in my wildest dreams,” Thomas said in a World Athletics post. “But at the same time, I know how hard I’ve fought for it. But when I walked out in this stadium and I knew I had all my friends and family here, I just knew that I had it. It was a confidence that you can’t really describe. Of course there was pressure, but I felt confident.
“This has been six years in the making – head down, working hard, going to really hard meets, pushing yourself, and now it’s here and I’ve done it. This is the happiest moment of my life.”
With his victory in the long jump, Tentoglou became the second man in history to win consecutive titles in the event.
The first was the immortal Carl Lewis, who won his first Olympic title in the long jump in the 1984 Games in Los Angeles before following that with victories in Seoul in 1988, in Barcelona in 1992, and in Atlanta in 1996.
The 26-year-old Tentoglou had gone from fourth place to first on his final jump in winning his first Olympic title in Tokyo. But he got off his best jump of 8.48 meters (27 feet 9¾ inches) in the second round this time around and no one ever caught him.
Wayne Pinnock of Jamaica, the silver medalist behind Tentoglou in last year’s World Championships, finished second at 8.36 (27-5) and 19-year-old Mattia Furlani of Italy finished third at 8.34 (27-4¼).
He was followed by Simon Ehammer of Switzerland at 8.20 (26-10¾), Jacob Fincham-Dukes of Great Britain at 8.14 (26-8¾), and Simon Batz of Germany at 8.07 (26-5½).
Mingkun Zhang of China also leaped 8.07, but Batz finished ahead of him because his second-best jump of 7.95 (26-0¾) was farther than Zhang’s No. 2 mark of 7.93 (26-0).
Tentoglou had been in second place behind Furlani after leaping 8.27 (27-1½) in the first round. But he hit his winning jump of 8.48 (27-9¾) in the second round and also produced marks of 8.24 (27-0¼) in the third round, 8.36 (27-5) in the fourth, and 8.31 (27-3) in the fifth before fouling on his sixth attempt.
“It’s a great achievement,” Tentoglou said in a World Athletics post. “I am very happy, but very tired. My distance was not bad, not good.”
Although Tentoglou’s second-round jump held up for the victory, he did not expect that to be the case.
“I didn’t think my jump was going to be enough because the other guys are very talented and capable. I was pushing throughout to do more.”
Rogers won the women’s hammer throw two days after compatriot Ethan Katzberg took the men’s event. But while Katzberg got off a big throw in the first round that no one came close to matching, the 25-year-old Rogers came from behind for her victory.
She took the lead with a first-round effort of 74.11 (243-1), but she dropped into second place when Jie Zhao of China got off a throw of 74.27 (243-8).
Rogers improved to 74.47 (244-3) in the third round, but that left her in second place behind the 75.48 (247-7) effort of Annette Nneke Echikunwoke of the U.S.
Rogers reduced her deficit to Echikunwoke to four centimeters with a 75.44 (247-6) effort in the fourth round before surging into the lead with her throw of 76.97 (252-6) in the fifth round. She then fouled on her sixth — and final — throw.
Echikunwoke, who had been the surprise winner of the U.S. Trials, won the silver medal with her 75.48 best and Zhao took the bronze with her throw of 74.27.
Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland, the three-time defending Olympic champion and a four-time World champion, finished fourth with a season best of 74.23 (243-6). She was followed by the Finnish duo of Silja Kosonen at 74.04 (242-10) and Krista Tervo at 73.83 (242-6).
DeAnna Price of the U.S., the 2019 World champion and the bronze medalist in last year’s World Championships, was regarded as a medal contender entering the competition, but she finished 11th at 71.00 (232-11).
Rogers’ victory was the first by a Canadian in the women’s hammer throw in the Olympic Games and it followed a win in last year’s World Championships. Prior to that, she placed fifth in the Olympic Games in 2021 and second in the World Championships in 2022.
“To be on that podium and to hear the national anthem is something that I’ve dreamed of for so long,” Rogers said in a World Athletics post. “I started throwing 12-and-a-half years ago, the summer of the London 2012 Olympics. Watching our Canadian women out there, doing their absolute best and representing our country so well, made me want to be here one day.
She then added that her fifth-round throw “was a do-or-die moment. To be able to do it when it counts, in that throw, and to see my coach cheering from the stands – this is the kind of thing we’ve been training for. I’m just glad I was able to make him proud in that moment of having all of our training lead to this.”
In addition to the five medal events contested on Tuesday, there were semifinals in men’s 400 meters and the women’s 400 hurdles.
Heats were also run in the women’s 1,500 and qualifying rounds were held in the men’s javelin and in the women’s long jump.
The semifinals of the men’s 400 meters produced some very quick times as Kirani James of Grenada, Muzala Samukanga of Zambia, and Quincy Hall of the U.S. all ran under 44 seconds and the slowest qualifier clocked 44.41.
Hall ran 43.95 in winning the first semifinal and Jereem Richards of Trinidad and Tobago grabbed the second automatic qualifying spot with a second-place time of 44.33.
James, the only man in history to have won gold, silver, and bronze medals in the 400 in the Olympic Games, placed first in the second semifinal in 43.78, his fastest time since 2016, and Samukanga placed second in a national record of 43.81. Chris Bailey of the U.S. finished third in 44.31 to grab one of the two qualifying spots based on time.
Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain might have turned in the most impressive performance of the semifinals when he absolutely cruised to a winning time of 44.07 in the third heat while finishing ahead of second-place Michael Norman of the U.S., who ran 44.26. Samuel Ogazi of Nigeria finished third in a personal best of 44.41 to grab the second qualifying spot based on time.
To the surprise of no one, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. and Femke Bol of the Netherlands produced the two fastest times in the semifinals of the women’s 400 hurdles,
Defending Olympic champion McLaughlin-Levrone, the world record-holder at 50.65 seconds, won the second semifinal in 52.13, with Louise Maraval of France finishing second in 53.83.
Defending World champion Bol, the second fastest performer in history at 50.95, won the third semifinal in 52.56. Anna Cockrell of the U.S. grabbed the second automatic qualifying spot with a time of 52.90, while Shiann Salmon of Jamaica and Savannah Sutherland of Canada advanced to Thursday’s final on time with efforts of 53.13 and 53.80, respectively.
Rushell Clayton of Jamaica won the first semifinal in 53.00, with Jasmin Jones of the U.S. finishing second in 53.83.
Ethiopians Gudaf Tsegay and Diribe Welteji, and Kenyan Nelly Chepchirchir won the three first-round heats in the women’s 1,500 meters in which the top six finishers in each race automatically advanced to the semifinals on Thursday.
Tsegay, who had finished a disappointing ninth in the 5,000 on Monday, won the first heat of the 1,500 in 3:58.84, followed by Laura Muir of Great Britain in 3:58.91.
Welteji, the silver medalist in last year’s World Championships, won the second heat in 3:59.73, followed by Georgia Bell of Great Britain in 4:00.29.
Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, who is attempting to win an unprecedented third consecutive title in the 1,500, placed fourth in the second heat with a time of 4:00.74 after finishing second to compatriot Beatrice Chebet in the 5,000 meters on Monday.
Chepchirchir won the third heat in 4:02.67, followed by Jessica Hull of Australia in 4:02.70.
One notable non-qualifier was Birke Haylom of Ethiopia, who placed 11th in 4:07.15 in the third heat. She will have a chance to advance to the semifinals when the repechage rounds are held on Wednesday.
Tara Davis-Woodhall of the U.S. led qualifying in the women’s long jump with a leap of 6.90 (22-7½).
The next four qualifiers for the 12-woman final to be held on Thursday were Larissa Iapichino of Italy at 6.87 (22-6¼), defending Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo of Germany at 6.86 (22-6), and Nigerians Ese Brume at 6.76 (22-2) and Ruth Usoro at 6.68 (21-10¾).
A notable non-qualifier was last year’s World champion Ivana Spanovic of Serbia, who placed 16th with a best of 6.51 (21-4¼).
Defending Olympic and World champion Neeraj Chopra of India led qualifying in the men’s javelin with throw of 89.34 (293-11).
The next five qualifiers were 2019 and ‘22 World champion Anderson Peters of Grenada at 88.63 (290-9), Julian Webber of Germany at 87.76 (287-11), Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan at 86.59 (284-1), Julius Yego of Kenya at 85.97 (282-0), and Luiz Mauricio da Silva of Brazil with a South American record of 85.91 (281-10).
The five finals scheduled for Wednesday are the men’s 400 meters and 3,000 steeplechase, the men’s discus, the women’s pole vault, and the marathon race walk mixed relay.
You can click here for a daily schedule of events, as well as start lists and up-to-date results.