Hocker stuns field to win Men’s 1,500m
American Cole Hocker pulled the upset of the Olympics on Tuesday night, beating his personal-best time by more than three seconds to outrace favourites Jakob Ingebrigsten and Josh Kerr for the title at 1,500 meters.
Hocker won the race in an Olympic record three minutes 27.65 seconds, pulling from fifth to first over the final 300 meters to take down the two runners whose rivalry dominated the buildup to the much-anticipated race.
Hocker, a 23-year-old product of University of Oregon, was listed as a 30-1 long shot for this race. He beat Kerr by .14 seconds while Ingebrigsten, who set the pace through the first 1,250 metres, ended up in fourth behind American Yared Nuguse.
It was the first U.S. win in the metric mile since Matt Centrowitz took Gold in 2016. This is the first time Americans put two Men on the 1,500-meter podium since the Stockholm Games in 1912.
All eyes for this one were trained on Ingebrigtsen, the defending champion out of Norway who came in with a point to prove.
He’d been beaten in the last two world championships, including last year by Kerr, the Scotsman who poked at Ingebrigtsen, saying Ingebrigtsen only won races with pacers, the likes of which are not allowed at major races like this.
Ingebrigtsen darted to the front quickly in this and ran there for the first 3 1/2 laps, while Kerr traded between second and third, getting ready for his typical windup and a potential slingshot past Ingebrigtsen over the closing stretch, much the way he did last year.
While that was playing out, Hocker, at fivefoot-9 1/2 and more than 3 1/2 inches shorter than the top two contenders, almost looked like he was trying to photo bomb the end of this race.
He snuck up on the inside once, only to have Ingebrigtsen block that move, then tried again, passed them both and crossed the line first, his arms outstretched and with a look of disbelief on his face.
Also, American Gabby Thomas sped to the victory in the Women’s 200m, finishing in 21.83s – finishing by a wide margin in a sprint – to add a Gold to the Bronze she took home in the event from Tokyo three years ago.
The 27-year-old Harvard graduate, who has a master’s in public health took the lead for good at the curve and was never challenged in the final stretch. She let out a shout and grabbed her head with both hands after crossing the line.
Thomas beat 100-meter champion Julien Alfred of St. Lucia by 0.25 seconds while Brittany Brown of the U.S. got the Bronze.
Meanwhile, Sydney Mclaughlin-levrone of the U.S. and Femke Bol of the Netherlands will go head-to-head at the 2024 Olympics in just the third matchup between this generation’s two top female hurdlers.
Their showdown in the 400-meter hurdles final today is a big one. Mclaughlin-levrone is the reigning Summer Games champion and keeps breaking the world record, over and over; Bol is the reigning world champ — it probably helped that the American was injured and not there — and already picked up a Gold in Paris with a terrific last leg for the Dutch in the 1,600-metre mixed relay.