On the third and final day of the 20th World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen ran to victory in a tactical 1500m and became only the second man in history to win the 1500m and 3000m at the same championships.
Ingebrigtsen, 24, duplicated the feat accomplished by Ethiopian great Haile Gebrselassie in Maebashi, Japan in 1999. Moreover, he became the only man to win 1500m and 3000m gold medals at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and the World Athletics Championships in the same year.
Ingebrigtsen Speaks With Reporters
“It feels good,” Ingebrigtsen told reporters in the mixed zone. “The main goal was obviously to win both distances. But I would say so far pretty good indoor season, getting out and succeeding the things that I wanted to accomplish. So, it’s been good.”
Although Ingebrigtsen went right to the back of the field after the gun (his usual tactic in championship racing) he decided to come forward earlier than usual because Sam Prakel of the United States stretched out the field in the early laps.
Prakel, the 2023 World Athletics Road Running Championships bronze medalist in the mile, remained the leader through 600m, and at that point Ingebrigtsen was in fourth position. One hundred meters later, with four laps to go, Ingebrigtsen took over the lead. He felt strong.
“Everything’s about consistency,” Ingebrigtsen said about his preparations for these championships. “Building, building and building. It’s all about running strength. The guy that has the most amount of energy left is the guy that’s going to run the fastest at the end.”
Silver Medal For Neil Gourley
Indeed, that guy was Ingebrigtsen. With two laps to go, the pace visibly picked up. Ingebrigtsen led Portugal’s Isaac Nader, Britain’s Neil Gourley, and Prakel’s USA teammate Luke Houser (Prakel faded and would finish last). Ingebrigtsen pressed the pace, and his 52.4-second closing 400m was too fast for the rest of the field.
He won in 3:38.79. Gourley was a clear second in 3:39.07, and Houser –who tried to challenge Ingebrigtsen on the backstretch and moved up briefly to second place– held off Nader to collect the bronze in 3:39.17.
After the race, Ingebrigtsen did not wish to compare himself with Gebrselassie.
“I think it’s very difficult to compare history and that being such a long time ago,” Ingebrigtsen said. “A lot of things have changed and I’m not doing this because anyone else has done it before. That’s purely a coincidence.”
Gourley, who was sixth at these championships in 2022 and fourth at the European Athletics Indoor Championships earlier this month, was happy with his silver medal.
“A couple of weeks ago I came away really disappointed from the European Indoors,” said Gourley, who is coached by American Stephen Haas. “So I had a point to prove.”
For Houser –twice the NCAA indoor mile champion for the University of Washington, who is only in his first year as a pro– the bronze medal was particularly sweet. He trains with the Atlanta Track Club’s elite program under coach Tom Nohilly, and this was a big accomplishment for their program.
“It feels great,” Houser told Jonathan Gault of Letsrun.com. “Coming in I knew I could get a medal, so glad I could just execute and get the job done.”
Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay Wins World Indoor Championships Gold
The women’s 1500m was an entirely different race. Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay –the 2022 world indoor 1500m champion and the holder of the three fastest indoor times in history– blasted away from the field right from the gun. She split 800m in a sizzling 2:03.5, a full four seconds ahead of teammate Diribe Welteji, who had Australia’s Georgia Griffith right on her heels.
Tsegay powered to a solo victory in a championships record 3:54.86, the fourth straight championships where an Ethiopian woman won gold. Welteji took second in 3:59.30, the fastest ever runner-up time at these championships, and Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell –who caught up to Welteji and Griffith about 900m into the race– took the bronze.
“This medal means a lot,” Hunter Bell told the BBC. “I just want to get as many medals as possible.”
Both of the 800m finals were fast.
On the men’s side, American record holder Josh Hoey went to the front after the break and was followed closely by Belgium’s Eliott Crestan and his American teammate Brandon Miller. Hoey led for the second lap, but as he approached the start/finish line for the third circuit Miller surged into the lead. Their halfway split was a very quick 50.64.
“I don’t run for second, I don’t run for medals, I run to win,” Miller told reporters after the race.
But on the backstretch, Hoey regained the lead and kept the pace hot. With a lap to go both Miller and Crestan were within four-tenths of a second. Hoey began to look less smooth, and Crestan passed Miller and was trying to catch Hoey.
In the homestretch, Hoey was clearly tying-up, and the Belgian nearly caught him in the final five meters. But Hoey, who had never made a national team before these championships, held on to win in 1:44.77, the third-fastest winning time at a World Athletics Indoor Championships.
“That was a tough race,” said Hoey, who is coached remotely by Australian Justin Rinaldi who lives in Melbourne. “Every race brings a challenge. I was fatiguing a lot that last 200, but just kind of muscled it out.”
Crestan, who also took the silver medal at the recent European Athletics Indoor Championships, was timed in 1:44.81. Bronze went to the young Spaniard Elvin Josue Canales, who held back earlier in the race and passed the slowing Miller in the race’s last 100 meters. Miller was also passed by Dutchman Samuel Chapple, the reigning European champion, who took fourth.
South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso scored an upset gold medal in the women’s four-lap final, recording a world-leading 1:58.40 and becoming the first South African to win an 800m indoor world title. Sekgodiso held back when Ethiopians Nigist Getachew and Tsige Duguma (the defending champion) rocketed ahead in the first lap (26.7 seconds). The Ethiopian duo still led at 400m (55.9), but began to tire in the next lap.
By the 600m point, Duguma was already exhausted and she would fade to finish last. Sekgodiso caught Getachew on the backstretch and ran away to get the win by an official margin of 1.23 seconds. Getachew got the silver in a personal best 1:59.63, and Portugal’s Patrice Silva –daughter of 2004 Olympic 1500m bronze medalist Rui Silva– passed both Poland’s Anna Wielgosz and Switzerland’s Audrey Werro in the homestretch to take bronze.
Her time of 1:59.80 was a national record, the first-ever sub-2:00 for a Portuguese woman indoors.
“I’m just going to go with the mentality of being in the final, and if a medal comes that’s a bonus for me,” Sekgodiso told South Africa’s SuperSport channel before leaving for Nanjing. She continued: “I’m just going to go with the goal of being in the final at every championship and just be myself and run well.”
