Cole Hocker beats Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen to take gold

Josh Kerr claimed 1500 metres silver after the United States’ Cole Hocker stormed to a shock gold in Olympic record time.

The Stade de France final was billed as the showdown of the century between the world champion Scotsman and his arch nemesis Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist.

The Norwegian quickly saw himself in front and held the lead into the final lap, when Kerr made his move along the back straight.

Just as it looked like Great Britain might have their second gold medal on the track, Hocker surged forward to snatch the title away as American Yared Nuguse claimed bronze, with Ingebrigtsen fourth.

Cole Hocker beat both Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win the 1500m final and claim the gold medal for the USA

Ahead of the race, Ingebrigtsen had been considered as the best runner over the distance in the world, but Kerr had the momentum after prevailing at the World Athletics Championship last year, as well as the Prefontaine Classic back in May.

Kerr told fans prior to the race on Tuesday evening that they should expect a ‘vicious’ contest, saying it will be one of the ‘hardest 1500 metres this sport has seen for a very long time’. 

They were both strong in their belief that they are the world’s best, with Ingebrigtsen the reigning Olympic champion from Tokyo, in a race where the Brit could only take bronze. 

Until the World Championships, it was a one-sided rivalry in Ingebrigtsen’s favour, with the Norwegian beating Kerr in their first eight meetings.

The rivalry though picked up a gear in Budapest after Kerr, like Jake Wightman at the World Championships in 2022, stunned the Norwegian to take gold.

The reigning Olympic champion, put that failure down to illness. Four days later, it should be noted, Ingebrigtsen was well enough to win 5000m gold.

It also came after Ingebrigtsen’s showboating in the semi-finals of the 1500m in Budapest, where he had time to gesture to the crowd as he overtook Kerr heading onto the final stretch to take the victory.

Kerr later that summer claimed that his rival’s showboating ‘comes from a place of insecurity’.

He told Citius Mag: ‘I do think it comes from a place of insecurity, where something has happened and he’s frustrated and he’s not the attention that he normally is when he’s won world records and really fast times.

‘When that happened, it didn’t annoy me because he did it. It made me excited because I knew there was a reason he did it.

‘Something has happened to get to this point where he doesn’t feel like the centre of attention or he surprises himself with how good he’s feeling. Something happened in that race. I was like, ‘Yeah, there’s a weakness right there.’

Ingebrigtsen has been the reigning Olympic champion from Tokyo, where Kerr finished third

Kerr though beat Ingebrigtsen to gold in the World Athletics Championships last year

Ingebrigtsen after his 5000m win at the World Championships, when asked if he was looking to get revenge on Kerr later in 2023, claimed the Brit was ‘just the next guy’.

Kerr responded to the Norwegian’s claims at the Zurich Diamond League press conference stating: ‘He can be disrespectful to me, that’s fine. I still have the World Championship gold medal and I’m going to be the world champion for the next two years regardless of his comments.

‘Obviously, I don’t love disrespectful comments and I’ve worked hard to get into this position and I beat him on the day. But if that’s the kind of route he wants to go down, that’s fine with me, I’m kind of unbothered by it.’

After appearing on The Sunday Plodcast, Kerr was asked about Ingebrigtsen’s tendency to run with pacemakers and whether he was ‘easy to beat’. He replied: ‘I do think people will start realising that a little bit now, but I don’t think he will, because the ego is pretty high on this one. I would love for him to be listening to this.’

He went on to add that Ingebrigtsen was ‘surrounded by yes men’ and ‘doesn’t realise he has ‘some real major weaknesses’.

The pair have been involved in a war of words since last year’s final in Budapest, and Kerr told fans they could expect a ‘vicious’ clash in Tuesday’s massive race in Paris

Explaining his comments in a follow up interview with the Guardian, Kerr added that Ingebrigtsen has some ‘flaws in the manners realm as well’.

Ingebrigtsen bit back during an interview with TV2 in Norway, after Kerr broke the two-mile indoor record at the Millrose Games in New York, where he set a time of 8:00.67 – beating Mo Farah’s 8:03.40 set in Birmingham back in 2015.

The Norwegian, who holds the outdoor two-mile record of 7:54.10 from the Paris Diamond League last year, said: ‘I would have beaten him in that race, blindfolded. But it’s good that people run better than they have done before.’