Week in Review: All-time great in the making?
Young, gifted, versatile Ingebrigtsen eases to sixth title in Euro CC championships
After watching Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway roll to his second consecutive senior men’s title in the European Cross Country Championships on Sunday, I must admit to wondering if the 22-year-old Norwegian might someday become the second man in history to win Olympic titles in the 1,500 meters, 5,000, and 10,000.
I could rightly be accused of looking too far ahead – it’s true Ingebrigtsen has never run a 10,000 on the track – but the defending Olympic champion in the 1,500 and World champion in the 5,000 looked mighty comfortable while racing over the 9.7-kilometer course in La Mandria Park in Piemonte, Italy, just outside of Turin.
The senior men’s race was the seventh – and final – race of the meet, and as a result, there were several places on the undulating course where the ground was muddy and the footing was uncertain. But the smooth-striding Ingebrigtsen did not seem to be fazed by the conditions.
“It was a tough race overall, but in the last couple of weeks I have been doing some really good training so I knew I was in great shape coming here,” he said in a post on the World Athletics site. “But then again, you don’t know about the course, and don’t know what shape your competitors are in so I think it was a great race for me. I had a lot of fun.”
Only one man — Paavo Nurmi of Finland — has won one of the most ambitious Olympic triples during their career: taking titles in the 1,500 and 5,000 in the 1924 Olympics in Paris, and the 10,000 in both the 1920 Games in Antwerp, Belgium, and the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.
The Flying Finn, as Nurmi was often called, ran during a bygone era when the Olympic Games were primarily an athletic endeavor amongst nations from Western Europe and the U.S. and Canada, and the East African running revolution was more than 30 years away from its start.
However, Nurmi is still considered one of the all-time greats, as he set a combined total of six world records in the 1,500, mile, 5,000, and 10,000 during his career, and there was a two-plus year stretch in the mid-1920s when he held the world record in all four events simultaneously.
Ingebrigtsen, the European-record-holder in the 1,500 at 3 minutes 28.32 seconds and in the 5,000 at 12:48.45, was content to bide his time during the early part of the men’s race on Sunday.
He was in 16th place six minutes into the race and in seventh place three and a half minutes later. He briefly took the lead two minutes after that but was content to run 10 meters behind first-place Emile Cairess of Great Britain at the 17:30 mark.
Ingebrigtsen led a chase pack of seven runners at that point, but the lead group was down to him, Cairess, and Isaac Kimeli of Belgium four minutes later.
That trio ran together through the 25-minute mark, but a little less than three minutes later, Ingebrigtsen began to break away from his two closest pursuers. He had a lead of three seconds over them at the end of the final uphill portion of the course when the runners — in what I’m guessing was a first in a major championship cross country meet — ran down a walkway covered with artificial turf that took them through an indoor horse-drawn carriage area of a museum that is part of the Castle of Moncalieri.
Ingebrigtsen only lengthened his lead in the final 500 meters of the race that was mostly downhill.
His winning time of 29 minutes 33 seconds gave him a nine-second margin of victory over Cairess (29:42), with Kimeli winning the bronze medal in 29:45.
France, paced by the sixth- and seventh-place finishes of Bastien Augusto (29:52) and Yann Schrub (29:52), edged Italy, 24-25 for the team title in which the places of a team’s top three runners count toward its total. Spain and Belgium each had 36 points, but Spain placed third on the tiebreaker as its No. 3 runner finished higher than Belgium’s.
What I found so impressive about Ingebrigtsen’s victory was that his breakaway from Cairess and Kimeli was not sudden and dramatic to the eye. It was so smooth and efficient that you didn’t really notice a change in Ingebrigtsen’s running cadence, but within seconds a widening gap appeared between him and them.
It is that effortless-looking efficiency, combined with his immense talent and superb mindset, which make me wonder if Ingebrigtsen might one day make the 10,000 his primary race, perhaps after he feels he has run as fast as he can in the 1,500, mile, and 5,000.
Championship streak: Ingebrigtsen has now won six consecutive individual titles in the European Cross Country Championships.
He won four U-20 championships in a row from 2016-19 before winning the last two senior titles. The 2020 meet was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a post on Instagram, Ingebrigtsen wrote: “Euro Cross-🥇🇳🇴! Felt great to be back racing on sunday. 🥳🏔🙌🏼 Thank you to everyone cheering, and for all nice messages. ❤️ #Piemonte2022 🇮🇹”
Another Norwegian victory: Ingebrigtsen was not the only runner from Norway who won a second consecutive European title on Sunday.
Countrywoman Karoline Bierkli Grovdal preceded his victory in the senior men’s race with a win in the senior women’s event.
Grovdal, like Ingebrigtsen, was able to wave to the crowd in the final 50 meters of the race as she had a comfortable lead at that point. But the 32-year-old had company for most of the 7.7-kilometer contest as 25-year-old Konstanze Klosterhalfen of Germany had taken the lead 18½ minutes into the race and did not relinquish it until there were less than 300 meters remaining when Grovdal increased her pace coming down a hill.
“I was tired going into the last lap, and I felt that in the last few meters, but I knew going down that hill that I am good at that,” she said. “The technical part is good for me. I felt quite strong going up the hills as well, and I think that is the reason I took the gold.”
Grovdal’s time of 26:25 gave her a four-second margin of victory over Klosterhalfen (26:29), who won the 5,000 in the European Athletics Championships in August.
Alina Reh edged German teammate Hanna Klein for the bronze medal as both runners were credited with times of 27:19.
Germany, which had four of the top six finishers, romped to the team title with a miniscule 9 points, followed by two-time defending champion Great Britain with 30 and Ireland with 50.
Two major wins in three weeks: Charles Hicks of Great Britain won his second consecutive European men’s U-23 (under-23) title on Sunday after winning his first NCAA championship for Stanford University on Nov. 19.
Hicks, 21, broke away from teammate Zakariya Mahamed with about 800 meters left in the race while on his way to a time of 23:40 over the 7.7-kilometer course. Mahamed finished second in 23:48, followed by bronze medalist Valentin Bresc of France, who ran 23:58.
Great Britain, whose No. 3 runner placed eighth, won the team title with 11 points, followed by France with 14.
Hicks was understandably ecstatic about his NCAA-European championships double.
“The idea of being able to pull off both in one year [was] absolutely unreal,” he said in an interview with European Athletics afterward. “Last year winning [the European Championships] was already an accomplishment beyond my wildest dreams, so I was like, if I can close it down, this would be the perfect season for me. Having finally done it, it’s just one of the best feelings in the world.”
One for the home team: Nadia Battocletti of Italy was a particularly popular winner in the women’s U-23 race as she successfully defended the title she won last year in Dublin.
The 22-year-old timed 19:55 over the 5.8-kilometer course. She was followed by the British duo of Megan Keith (20:08) and Alexandra Millard (20:27).
Great Britain easily won the team title with 10 points, followed by Italy with 31.
Battocletti’s second consecutive win in the U-23 race – which she capped with a scream of joy as she crossed the line – followed back-to-back victories at the U-20 level in 2018 and ’19.
“I really wanted this title’” she said. “You can dream, but it is difficult to do. Now I am really happy.”
When asked which title she most appreciated, she replied it was the first one because she was a “no one” when she won it.
New faces galore: Uganda, which won its first ever men’s team title in the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in 2019, will be sending an entirely new team to the 2023 meet that is scheduled to be held in Bathhurst, Australia on Feb. 18.
That became official on Saturday when none of the top six finishers in the men’s race of the national championships in Teroro were members of the 2019 squad that had four of the top 10 finishers in the World Championships while posting a runaway 20-43 victory over runner-up Kenya in the meet in Aarhus, Denmark.
Joshua Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo, who finished 1-2 in Aarhus, top the list of men who did not run in the national championships.
Cheptegei, who won his second consecutive title in the 10,000 meters in the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon in July, is coming back from a knee injury that first bothered him during the World Championships.
Kiplimo, who won the 5,000 and 10,000 in the Commonwealth Games in August, won a regional cross country title on Nov. 26, but he was a late withdrawal from the national championships.
In their absence, 19-year-old Martin Kiprotich won the men’s race with a time of 29:35 over the 10,000-meter course. He was followed by Isaac Kibet in 29:43.
Stella Chesang won the women’s race with a 33:57 clocking over the 10-kilometer course. Prisca Chesang (no relation) finished second in 34:06.
The Ugandan women were bronze medalists behind Ethiopia and Kenya in both the 2015 and ’19 World Championships.
The World Cross Country Championships began in 1973 and were held annually through 2011 before switching to a once-every-two-years format in 2013.
The 2021 meet was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the rescheduled meet was again cancelled last year due to a spike in the rate of the virus in Australia.
Eyes on the future: For someone who was the top-ranked girls’ high school cross-country runner in the nation early in the season, Sadie Engelhardt’s 10th-place finish in the Champs Sports Cross Country National Championships in San Diego on Saturday might be viewed as a disappointing result to some.
But the sophomore from Ventura High in California said in a phone interview she was happy with her performance after a sinus infection and congestion in her lungs forced her to back off in her training at various points during the first two months of the season.
“I felt like I raced pretty well,” she said of her 17:41.4 clocking over the 5,000-meter course at Morley Field in Balboa Park. “I was present [mentally] the whole time and was aware of what was happening in the race the whole time, and I couldn’t say that about the way I ran last year.”
Englehardt finished 15th in the national championships in 2021 with a time of 17:51.5 over the same course. She was in front of the 40-runner field for the first 800 meters of that race, but dropped back after that and lost some of her focus in the second half of the contest.
On Saturday, she was in 14th place after the first half-mile before moving up to 11th at the mile (5:19.4) and 9th at two miles (11:11.5). She was in 8th place at the 2½-mile mark (14:06.2), but fell back to 10th during the final part of the two-loop race that included a large hill during the second half of each lap.
“I was pretty confident going into the race because my workouts had been going well for the past five weeks,” Engelhardt said. “But I don’t think my fitness was all there.”
Nonetheless, Englehardt is looking forward to the indoor track season. She is planning to run the mile in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston on Feb. 4 and in the New Balance Nationals at the same Track at New Balance facility on March 10.
Engelhardt lowered the national high school freshman indoor records to 4:18.97 in the 1,500 meters and 4:37.40 in the mile last year before running national freshman records of 4:11.79 in the 1,500, 4:35.16 in the mile, and 9:50.69 in the 3,200 outdoors.
“I’m super excited for track” she said. “I love both [cross country and track], but I’d say track is my strong suit. I’m getting really excited thinking about the season.”
Upward trajectory: It will be interesting to see where junior Payton Godsey of Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village, California, is ranked when dyestat.com releases its final national individual rankings for the just-completed high school cross country season.
Godsey was the No. 14-ranked girls’ runner in the nation when the most recent rankings were released on December 1. But much has happened since then.
First, she won the Garmin RunningLane Championships in Huntsville, Alabama, on Dec. 3.
Then, sophomore Zariel Macchia of Floyd High in Mastic Beach, New York, whom Godsey defeated for the RunningLane title, placed sixth in the Champs Sports Cross Country National Championships in San Diego on Saturday.
Godsey, whose father Brian placed 12th in the Division I boys’ race of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Cross Country Championships in 1990 as a senior at Taft High in Woodland Hills, had won the Division IV girls’ title at the state meet on Nov. 26 with a time (17:00.1). That was the second-fastest time of the day amongst all five divisions as Sadie Engelhardt ran 16:57.9 to win the Division II title.
To further complicate matters, Engelhardt was the No. 6-ranked runner in the nation entering the Champs Sports meet and Macchia was 17th.
Godsey set personal bests of 4:51.14 in the mile and 10:19.05 in the 3,200 meters during track season, but her cross-country performances would seem to indicate she is capable of running substantial faster in those events in 2023.
Annual awards time: Mondo Duplantis of Sweden and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the U.S. have been selected as the men’s and women’s athletes of the year by World Athletics.
Duplantis, who turned 23 last month, set two world records in the indoor pole vault, as well as two in the outdoor pole vault this year.
His highest indoor performance came in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March when he cleared 6.20 meters (20 feet 4¼ inches) on his third attempt in the meet in Belgrade, Serbia.
He topped that mark outdoors when he soared over 6.21 (20-4½) – with several inches to spare – on his second attempt in winning the World outdoor title in Eugene, Oregon in July.
He cleared 6.00 (19-8¼) or higher in an unprecedented 15 meets during the year. Chris Nilsen of the U.S. was the only other pole vaulter in the world to clear 6.00 or higher this year, and he did it in two meets, with a best of 6.02 (19-9).
"Going into the year, I had really high expectations of myself and I had some really big goals," Duplantis told World Athletics. "I wanted to win the world indoors, the world outdoors, the Europeans, the Diamond League final, and I wanted to break the world record a few times.
“I was able to do that and it was a bonus, the cherry on top, to do be able to [break the world record] at the right times, to do it at world indoors and do it at world outdoors. I can’t complain."
McLaughlin-Levrone, who turned 23 in August, only competed in five meets this season but still managed to set two world records in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, and she also ran the fifth, sixth, and 10th fastest times in history.
Her first world record of the season – and third of her young career – came in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in June when she ran 51.41 to cut five hundredths of a second off her world-record time from the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. She then ran a scintillating 50.68 in the World Championships in Eugene in July to become the first woman in history to run under 51 seconds in the event.
"All of my goals were accomplished this year," McLaughlin-Levrone said. "We were able to accomplish everything we set out to do. It couldn’t have been any better, and I was so grateful that I was able to produce that performance in front of a home crowd."
In addition to her performances in the 400 hurdles, McLaughin-Levrone ran a 47.91-second anchor leg on the United States’ victorious 1,600 relay team in the World Championships, and she opened her season in April by winning the 100 hurdles in 12.75 in the Penn Relays.
On the performance enhancing drug front: Gil Roberts of the U.S. has accepted a 16-month suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Administration (USADA) for an anti-doping violation. The suspension began on June 3.
The 31-year-old Roberts, who set a personal best of 44.22 seconds in finishing second in the men’s 400 in the 2017 USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships, tested positive for andarine and ostarine as a result of an out-of-competition urine sample collected on May 19 of this year.
USADA determined that Roberts’ positive test was caused by his use of a dietary supplement that did not list any prohibited ingredients on its label. Analysis of a sealed container of the supplement revealed that it contained andarine and ostarine.
Roberts was the No. 5-ranked 400 performer in the world by Track & Field News for the 2014 season and he was ranked sixth for 2017.
He was eliminated in the semifinals of the 400 in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and in the 2017 World Championships in London.