American Cole Hocker pulled the upset of the Olympics on Tuesday night, beating his personal-best time by more than three seconds to outrace favorites Jakob Ingebrigsten and Josh Kerr for the title at 1,500 meters.
Hocker won the race in an Olympic record 3 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 the University of Oregon, was listed as much as a 30-1 long shot for this race. He beat Kerr by .14 seconds, while Ingebrigsten, who set the pace through the first 1250 meters, 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 Ingebrigsten 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 5-foot-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.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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