Kerr uses familiar tactic to win World Champs
Brit upsets Ingebrigtsen for 1,500-meter title, just as Wightman did last year
If you want to beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway in the 1,500 meters in a global title race, you need to challenge him heading into the final turn of the contest.
Jake Wightman of Great Britain did that in upsetting Ingebrigtsen for the World title last year and fellow Brit — and Scot — Josh Kerr used the same tactic on Wednesday night to win the men’s 1,500 in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
The 22-year-old Ingebrigtsen had been so dominant in the 1,500 this season that plenty of people were using the U word — unbeatable — when talking about him.
His results had been very impressive as he had won all four Diamond League races that he had run in the 1,500, broken 3 minutes and 29 seconds in three of them, and lowered his European record to 3:27.14 in winning the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Chorzow, Poland on July 16.
He had also run a world best of 7:54.10 in the two mile in the Meeting de Paris Diamond League meet on June 9.
In all four of his victories in the 1,500, Ingebrigtsen had runners relatively close to him entering the home straightway. But in each race, he shifted gears with 90 meters to go and no one had been able to hang with him.
Kerr had run in the two of those Ingebrigtsen victories.
He finished ninth in 3:30.07 in the Bislett Games in Oslo on June 15, when Ingebrigtsen ran 3:27.95, and he placed third in 3:29.64 in the Athletissima meet in Lausanne, Switzerland two weeks later when Ingebrigtsen clocked 3:28.72.
The 25-year-old Kerr told NBC Sports’ Lewis Johnson after his victory on Wednesday that although Ingebrigtsen had gotten the better of him in Lausanne, he had “learned a lot from the way he runs.”
He did not go into details about what he learned, and unfortunately Johnson did not ask him about that in a follow-up question. But Kerr he did say that he and his coaches and support team had “left no stone unturned” when it came to preparing for the World Championships, whether that involved his nutrition, his sleep, or reviewing previous races.
The thorough preparation left him feeling very good about his chances entering the final in the National Athletics Stadium in Budapest as he told Johnson that “if it wasn’t a gold medal today, that was the best we could have done.”
The race began at a crisp pace.
Abel Kipsang of Kenya led through 400 meters in 56.01 seconds with Azzedine Habz of France second in 56.03 and Ingebrigtsen third in 56.13.
Kipsang still led when he came through 800 meters in 1:54.19, but Ingebrigtsen was in second in 1:54.23, and he had moved into first place with a lap and a half left in the race.
Kerr was in seventh place after the first lap and in sixth after two laps, but he moved into second, just ahead of Yared Nuguse of the U.S. and Kipsang, when Ingebrigtsen led the field through 1,100 meters in 2:35.89.
Kerr still trailed Ingebrigtsen at 1,200 meters in 2:49.53, but as they neared the end of the backstretch, Kerr moved past him by the narrowest of margins entering the final curve. He knew that making the move at that point in the race was not the most strategically sound thing to do as it meant he might have to stay to the outside of Ingebrigtsen around the curve — thus increasing the distance he had to run — but as he told Johnson, “I believed in myself and I knew I’d regret [it] for the rest of my life if I didn’t send it. I sent it and that was the result.”
According to statistics on the meet website, Ingebrigtsen was two hundredths of a second ahead of Kerr with 100 meters left in the race, but Kerr began to open up a small lead on the Norwegian as they battled down the home straightaway and he had gapped his rival with 50 meters to go.
Although he later told the BBC that he was “holding on” for the last 50 meters, he was well clear of Ingebrigtsen when he crossed the finish line in 3:29.38, the second fastest time of his career.
Ingebrigtsen clocked 3:29.65, just ahead of hard-charging countryman Narve Gilje Nordas at 3:29.68.
Kipsang finished fourth in 3:29.89, followed by Nuguse in fifth in 3:29.89, and Mario Garcia of Spain in sixth in 3:30.26.
“I was battling with Jakob very hard, you can see by my face I’m throwing everything at this guy, I was hurting,” Kerr further told the BBC. “I’ve wanted this my whole life. I’m so happy.”
Kerr’s victory came in his fifth global title meet.
He placed 11th in his qualifying heat in the 2017 World Championships in London when he was 19, sixth in the 2019 meet in Doha, Qatar, third in the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, and fifth in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon last year.
“I trained to be the best I can be between the ages of 25 and 30,” Kerr said when Johnson asked him about the Olympic Games in Paris next summer. “I’ve put together five major championship performances, and today it was gold. So we’re transitioning and we’re moving in the right direction. And I’m looking for obviously a replication of this. But again, the fields are so difficult. It’s a hard sport. I just want to go out and get my best.”
Finals were contested in three other events on Wednesday as Karsten Warholm of Norway won an unprecedented third title in the men’s 400-meter intermediate hurdles, Nina Kennedy of Australia and Katie Moon of the U.S. tied for first place in the women’s pole vault, and Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won the women’s 400.
The 27-year-old Warholm had won World titles in 2017 and ’19 before lowering his own world record to a scintillating 45.94 in winning the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. But he had sustained a hamstring injury in his season-opening meet in early June last year and finished seventh in 48.42 in the World Championships after fading badly in the home straightaway.
However, he had posted winning times of 47.12 and 47.24 in the European Championships in Munich and in the ISTAF meet in Berlin to end his season last year and then run 46.52, 47.57, 46.76, and 46.51 in his first four meets of this season before the World Championships.
He placed first in 48.76 in his qualifying heat on Sunday before winning his semifinal in 47.09 on Monday.
The relative ease with which he appeared to be running in his semifinal had some people wondering if he might challenge his world record on Wednesday. That did not happen, but he nonetheless dominated the final 100 meters of the race to cross the finish line in 46.89.
Kyron McMaster of the British Virgin Islands finished second in 47.34, followed by Rai Benjamin of the U.S. in third in 47.56, 19-year-old Roshawn Clarke of Jamaica in fourth in 48.07, and defending champion Alison dos Santos of Brazil in fifth in 48.10.
The race was not typical for Warholm, as he usually gets out ahead of everyone and is rarely caught.
However, McMaster led the race after covering the first 100 meters in 11.23 seconds and Benjamin was in first place through 200 in 21.83. But Warholm had a lead of nearly a tenth of a second over second-place Benjamin when he came through the 300 mark in 33.61 and his advantage grew significantly larger in the home straightaway.
Benjamin, second in the previous three World Championships, as well as in the Olympic Games, typically finishes strong in the home straightaway, but he lost ground to both Warholm and McMaster this time around.
Warholm’s clocking of 46.89 was tied for the 14th fastest time in history, was his seventh fastest, and gave him an unprecedented eight sub-47 performances during his career.
Warholm was quoted as saying in an olympic.com post that it was great to win a gold medal in front of a large crowd as the Olympic Games had been contested in an all but empty stadium because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He then added that he “had a tough season last year - I was injured, wasn't at my best. So to come here today and get my gold medal back, it feels very nice.”
When asked about the race itself, he said “When I saw that people were a bit ahead of me at hurdle five… I know that no one in the world is faster than me over the first five hurdles. And I know that if they are ahead of me, they used too much of their energy. So the last 100 meters was mine today.”
The women’s pole vault was an unusual affair in that it ended in a tie, the first time in the 40-year history of the World Championships that there have been co-gold medalists in any event.
Kennedy and Moon both cleared the same height of 4.90 meters (16 feet 0¾ inches), and they both made it on their third attempt before each of them missed three times at 4.95 (16-2¾).
That left them tied for first, and the next tiebreaker was the number of misses during the competition, which was six for both of them.
They could have determined an outright winner by taking part in a jump-off, in which each of them would attempt to clear various heights until one of them cleared a bar and the other missed. But they agreed to be co-gold medalists.
“I didn’t think she’d want to share it, I thought we might have had to keep jumping,” Kennedy was quoted as saying in an olympics.com post. "But, you know, I kind of looked at her and said, Hey, girl, you maybe wanna share this?
"And the relief on her face - and you could see it on my face - and it was mutual. And yeah, absolutely incredible to share a medal with Katie Moon. You know, we’ve been friends for so long so it’s super special.”
The gold medal was Moon’s third in the last three global title meets as she placed first in the Olympics in 2021 and in the World Championships last year.
"I'm at a point where I've just given it my all," she explained when asked about sharing the title with Kennedy, the bronze medalist last year. “We went out and we both did pretty much the same thing and it just felt right. We both won today so it was the right call!"
The 32-year-old Moon and the 26-year-old Kennedy each cleared 4.50 (14-9) and 4.65 (15-3) on their first attempts, but Moon passed at 4.75 (15-7) while it took Kennedy two attempts to clear that height.
Wilma Murto of Finland was in first place at that point in the competition because she had cleared 4.50, 4.65, and 4.75 on her first attempts.
Murto remained in the lead after she cleared 4.80 (15-9) on her first attempt.
Kennedy and Tina Sutej of Slovenia also cleared that height on their first try, but they were tied for second because they each had one miss in the competition. Moon found herself in fourth place because it took her two attempts to get over 4.80.
Moon and Kennedy moved into a tie for first place when they cleared 4.85 (15-11) on their first attempts and Murto and Sutej missed all three of their attempts at that height.
Moon and Kennedy proceeded to clear 4.90 on their third attempts before missing three times at 4.95, leading to their decision to share the title.
Kennedy, who set two national records during the competition, moved into a tie for ninth on the all-time World performer list with her 4.90 clearance. Moon ranks fourth with her 4.95 best from 2021.
As the women’s 400 meters started on Wednesday, I thought there were five runners in the field who had a legitimate chance at contending for the three medals. But it ended up being a very clear-cut affair as Paulino ran away with the race to become the first woman from the Dominican Republic to win an individual gold medal in the World Championships.
The silver medalist in the Olympics and in last year’s World Championships, Paulino was the the fastest entrant in the meet with a best if 48.98. But she had finished a well-beaten third — in 50.00 — behind Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland (49.48) and Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands (49.81) in a Diamond League meet in Chorzow, Poland on July 16.
However, she looked to be running well within herself when she ran 49.54 to win her semifinal on Monday. And she took charge of Wednesday’s race around the second curve after Klaver led for the first 100 meters in 11.96 and Candice McLeod of Jamaica was in first place at the 200-meter mark in 22.63.
The 26-year-old Paulino proceeded to run the third 100-meter segment of the race nearly four tenths of a second faster than anyone in the field before picking up more ground in the home straightaway to set a national record of 48.76.
Kaczmarek finished second in 49.57, followed by Sada Williams of Barbados in 49.60, Rhasidat Adeleke of Ireland in 50.13, and Cynthia Bolingo of Belgium in 50.33. Klaver also ran 50.33 while finishing in sixth place.
Paulino’s time moved her to 11th on the all-time performer list.
“A lot of emotions are running through me,” Paulino was quoted as saying in an Athletics Weekly post. “This national record means a lot to me. It is really incredible, but I have been preparing for this for a long time, working hard to achieve a goal like this. The gold medal was my dream, and I had the talent to turn this dream into reality.”
Wednesday was an extremely busy day as semifinals were contested in the women’s 100-meter hurdles and first-round heats were run in the men’s and women’s 200, and in the women’s 800, 3,000-meter steeplechase, and 5,000.
Qualifying was also held in the men’s long jump and pole vault, and in the women’s triple jump, hammer throw, and javelin.
In the semifinals of the women’s 100 hurdles, Keni Harrison of the U.S. and Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico posted the top two qualifying times of 12.32 and 12.41 while winning their respective heats.
Nia Ali of the U.S., the 2019 World champion, finished second behind Camacho in 12.49.
Defending champion and world-record-holder Tobi Amusan of Nigeria won the other semifinal, but she did not looked sharp while running 12.56.
Megan Tapper of Jamaica and Masai Russell of the U.S. were notable non-qualifiers.
Tapper, the bronze medalist in the Olympics, finished fourth in her heat in 12.55.
Russell, who set a collegiate record of 12.36 for the University of Kentucky earlier this season, got off to a great start in her semifinal. But she hit the second hurdle hard, cleared the third barrier awkwardly, and then pushed over the fourth and fifth ones before coming to a stop.
In heats of the men’s 200, all of the leading contenders advanced to the semifinals on Thursday.
Amongst the seven heat winners were two-time defending champion Noah Lyles of the U.S. (20.05), Letsile Tebogo of Botswana (20.22), Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain (19.99), and Americans Kenny Bednarek (20.01) and Erriyon Knighton (20.17).
Lyles, Tebogo, and Hughes placed 1-2-3 in the 100-meter final on Sunday. Bednarek was the silver medalist in the World Championships last year and in the Olympic Games in 2021, and Knighton was the bronze medalist last year after placing fourth in the Olympics.
James Dadzie of Ghana, who had run a national record of 19.79 while competing for Western Texas College in late April, pulled up in his heat with an apparent hamstring injury.
In the heats of the women’s 200, all of the leading contenders also advanced.
They included defending champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica (22.51), Olympic bronze medalist Gabby Thomas (22.26) and Sha’Carri Richardson (22.16) of the U.S., 2019 World champion Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain (22.46), and Julien Alfred of St. Lucia (22.31).
Richardson and Jackson finished first — in 10.65 — and second — in 10.72 — in the final of the women’s 100 on Monday. Thomas ran a personal best and yearly world-leading time of 21.60 in winning the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships on July 9.
All of the major contenders also advanced out of the heats of the women’s 800, including defending World and Olympic champion Athing Mu of the U.S.
Mu had run only one 800-meter race this season prior to Wednesday, and her coach, Bobby Kersee, had told the Los Angeles Times on August 2 that a decision had yet to be made about whether Mu would run in the meet or bypass it in order to focus on training for the Olympic Games in Paris next July.
However, she arrived in Budapest last week and won her heat in 1:59.59 and Natoya Goule-Toppin of Jamaica placed second in 1:59.64.
Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain, who battled Mu to the wire in the World Championships last year, placed first in her heat in 1:59.53, and Mary Moraa of Kenya, who has won seven consecutive 800-meter finals since finishing third in the World Championships last year, took her heat in 1:59.89.
All of the leading contenders in the women’s steeplechase and 5,000 advanced out of their heats to their respective finals.
Winfred Mutile Yavi of Bahrain won the first heat of the steeplechase in 9:19.18, with Faith Cherotich of Kenya taking the second in 9:19.55, and countrywoman Jackline Chepkoech winning the third in 9:16.41.
In the 5,000, Beatrice Chebet of Kenya and 10,000 champion Gudaf Tsegay of Ethiopia placed first and second in the first heat with times of 14:57.70 and 14:57.72, respectively.
Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and 1,500 champion Faith Kipyegon of Kenya were the first two finishers in the second heat with times of 14:32.29 and 14:32.31.
Some of the biggest news to come out of qualifying in the field events occurred in the women’s hammer when three-Olympic champion Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland and defending World champion Brooke Andersen of the U.S. were eliminated.
Wlodarcyzk, who is coming off a knee injury from last year, had a best of 71.13 (233-4) to finish 13th overall. The top 12 throwers advanced to the final.
Andersen, who had moved to third on the all-time performer list with a throw of 80.17 (263-0) earlier this year, finished 25th with a best of 67.72 (222-2). That mark came on her third — and final — attempt as she had fouled on her first two throws.
Her performance is particularly shocking because she had the eight longest throws in the world this year and had won nine of 10 meets while throwing 75.40 (247-4) or further on every competition.
The top three qualifiers in the hammer were Hanna Skydan of Azerbaijan at 77.10 (252-11), 2019 World champion DeAnna Price of the U.S. at 76.25 (250-2), and Silha Kosonen of Finland at 74.19 (243-5).
Skydan’s mark topped her previous national record of 75.29 (247-0) from 2017 and moved her to 14th on the all-time performer list.
In the women’s javelin, the three leading qualifiers were Lina Muze-Sirma of Latvia at 63.50 (208-4), Mackenzie Little of Australia at 63.45 (208-2), and Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan at 63.27 (207-7).
A notable non-qualifier was Eliza Tzengko of Greece, as the the runner-up in last year’s European Championships finished 30th with a best of 54.27 (178-0).
The women’s triple jump saw all of the major contenders move on to the final, led by Shanieka Ricketts of Jamaica at 14.67 (48-1¾), Thea Lafond of Dominica at 14.62 (47-11¾), and Olympic and three-time defending World champion Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela at 14.59 (47-10½).
In men’s long jump qualifying, Wayne Pinnock of Jamaica became the 23rd man in history to leap 28 feet or further with his 8.54 (28-0¼) effort. Defending champion Jianan Wang of China was the No. 2 qualifier at 8.34 (27-4½), followed by Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece at 8.25 (27-0¾).
Thirteen men advanced to the final of the men’s pole vault by clearing 5.75 (18-10½). Included in that list were world-record-holder Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, Chris Nielsen of the U.S., and Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines, who placed first, second, and third in the meet last year.
Sondre Guttormsen of Norway and Menlo Vloon of the Netherlands were notable non-qualifiers.
Guttormsen was only able to clear 5.55 (18-2½), with Vloon clearing 5.70 (18-8½).
Guttormsen had cleared a national record of 6.00 (19-8¼) to win the NCAA indoor title for Princeton in early March. But he had struggled for most of the outdoor season after clearing 5.90 (19-4¼) in his season opener.
Vloon had cleared 5.91 (19-4¾) indoors and 5.85 (19-2¼) outdoors this year.