New Delhi: The 1,500m race has evolved into a unique beast. It requires the doggedness of the long distance runner but without an explosive finish in the bank, it is more likely that all the early hard work will come to naught.

Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen is a generational talent alright, but his front-running tactics to wear out bitter British rival Josh Kerr proved a disaster on Tuesday night as Cole Hocker of the US slipped through on the inside lane in the final stretch to ‘steal’ the gold medal.

Ingebrigtsen, the defending Olympic champion, and Kerr, who beat him at the 2023 Budapest World Championships, had been poking each other with statements that had built the race into one bitter battle. Even Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics (WA) president and the only man to successfully defend the Olympic 1,500m title, had added fuel to the rivalry, dubbing it a “Race for the Ages”.

The Norwegian set the Olympic record while winning in Tokyo three years ago, but was beaten to gold at the Eugene World Championships by British runner Josh Wightman. That he bounced back to win the 5,000m in Eugene and Budapest is a tribute to his reserves of stamina, but it was clear that the gold medal he badly wanted was the 1,500m.

While Kerr found consolation by winning the silver medal, Ingebrigtsen, without a killer final surge to fall back on despite having become only the fourth man to run a sub 3:27 close to the Olympics (3:26.73), walked away sullen and without a podium finish as he was pipped to bronze by Yared Nuguse, the second US runner. It was a rapid race as the first four came under Ingebrigtsen’s Olympic record of 3:28.32 set in Tokyo.

In fact, barely 15 hours after his devastating loss, Ingebrigtsen qualified for the 5,000m final as the fastest. While he may still leave Paris with a gold medal hanging around his neck, Tuesday night’s drama, with 80,000 fans baying in anticipation, only added to the allure of the blue riband track event.

While Coe stoked the Norwegian-British rivalry, both faced criticism in the aftermath of the best contenders ceding the title and pulling each other down. It was some theatre, though, in the true tradition of the 1,500m. Coe himself was part of one at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Four years before he successfully retained the 1,500m title at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Coe and compatriot Steve Ovett were dubbed as the men who won the ‘wrong’ events. Odds-on favourites to win the 800m and 1,500m, Coe was left stunned when Ovett pushed him to silver in the two-lapper.

Coe, coached by father Peter, regrouped brilliantly and the athletics world wondering what the response would be got its answer. In the 1,500m final, Coe produced his late kick on the final bend to clinch victory as Ovett was pushed to bronze.

The next great 1,500m rivalry was witnessed at the 2000 Sydney Games. Hicham El Guerrouj was the favourite, but Kenya’s Noah Ngeny – he was the Moroccan’s pacemaker when he set the current world record of 3:26.00 in Rome in 1998 – snatched a thrilling win on the line, 3:32.07 to 3:32.32. Guerrouj though made amends with victory at the 2024 Athens Olympics.

Tuesday night’s bruising run was a far cry from the one Matthew Centrowitz aced at Rio 2016. In a slow final, no one wanted to lead and as the others were left jockeying heading into the home stretch, Centrowitz came through the inside, like Hocker, only that a pedestrian 3:50.00 got the job done.

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