“They wanted to win,” said Jakob Ingebrigtsen after the race about the enthusiastic crowd at the Bislett Games in Oslo: “I felt the energy.” That drove him and gave him the motivation to win the 1500-meter race as part of the Diamond League. The 23-year-old managed to do so in spectacular fashion: “I am very happy to have won.”
But it took more than just a loud crowd to secure the Norwegian home victory in the final event of the evening. Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen led the race from the front of the field, but one of his competitors refused to be shaken off. Timothy Cheruiyot, the 2019 world champion, stayed doggedly on Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s heels.
The 28-year-old Kenyan challenged the Norwegian, who was five years younger, and even seemed to be a step faster on the home straight – but then Ingebrigtsen surprised Cheruiyot with a daring dive and saved a 0.03 second lead to the finish. In a time of 3:29.74 minutes, the Norwegian not only secured the victory, but also marked a world performance of the year.
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The quality of the race is clear when you look at the results list: the first eleven finishers set either season bests or personal bests. In the world rankings, Thursday’s top eleven are among the best 14 of the entire year – including the German Robert Farken, who finished ninth and missed his personal best by just 0.1 seconds in 3:32:20.
Almost world record over 5000 meters
In a second spectacular race of the evening, however, Jakob Ingebrigtsen was one of many amazed spectators: over 5000 meters, the Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet won in a sensational time of 12:36.73 seconds – also a world best time of the year, but above all only just one and a half seconds above the world record set by Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda) in 2020 (12:35.36).
Reward of the run: annual world recorddpa
Ingebrigtsen can call himself double world champion in 2022 and 2023 over this distance, but his fastest time of 12:48.64 is well behind the absolute world leaders. But even world record holder Cheptegei could not keep up with the brilliant pace set by Gebrhiwet on Thursday. He finished ninth in 12:51.94.
Gebrhiwet, on the other hand, stormed to the front of the movement with a final 400-meter lap in 54.99 seconds, closely followed by his compatriot, last year’s Oslo winner Yomif Kejelcha, who moved up to fourth place on the “all-time” list with his time of 12:38.95.
A total of 13 runners crossed the finish line in less than 13 minutes – in addition to the winner, five other runners set national records. “I’m really happy with my time,” said Gebrhiwet, who is already world champion in the five-kilometer road race. He then immediately announced his next goal, which sounds extremely modest given his running ability: “I’m now going to try to qualify for the Olympics in the 10,000 meters as well.”
