It all came down to this. Every race, every jab in the media, every carefully crafted social media post, every press conference barb. All the buildup from the last 11 months was settled in a three-and-a-half minute span today. And man, did this one live up to expectations. Jakob Ingebrigtsen took it out hot as expected, Josh Kerr made a late surge as expected, but the first one across the line was the U.S.A.’s Cole Hocker. Not as expected (unless you’re Aisha Praught Leer). Kerr took home silver, and a hard-closing Yared Nuguse came through with bronze, making it a 1-3 finish for the U.S.

Here’s what you need to know:

- Ingebrigtsen went straight to the lead, which seemed like it would be his strategy after his 3:26.73 clocking in Monaco last month. Conventional wisdom – and seemingly the wisdom of his camp – said the best way for him to win was to run the kick out of his competitors that can finish faster, and it looked like he was going to pull that off. Through the first half of this race, Ingebritsen was a hair over world record pace. It looked like he had started to pull away on the back straight with a little over 600m left, but just as suddenly as he created the gap, he was reeled back in.

- At the bell, Ingebrigtsen had Timothy Cheruiyot hot on his tail, while Kerr, Nuguse, and Hocker sat in third, fourth, and fifth. Kerr and Hocker made strong moves to put pressure on the reigning Olympic champ on the back straight, and as they came around the bend Kerr sat just on Ingebrigtsen’s shoulder in shades of Budapest, while Hocker attempted to move up along the rail to Ingebrigtsen’s inside. Ingebrigtssen closed that move off, forcing Hocker to hesitate as he dropped back a bit.

- Kerr took the lead on the straightaway and looked like he was going to be able to run away from the field as Ingebrigtsen started fading, but it was Hocker who proved to have the better close on the day. The 23-year-old Oregon product found the room on the rail he was looking for earlier and charged past both the reigning Olympic champ and the reigning World champ. He crossed the line with arms held high, celebrating a gold medal and a new Olympic record of 3:27.65. Kerr finished close behind in 3:27.79, a British record.

- As Ingebrigtsen continued to fade, Nuguse found a furious kick inside himself to come through for bronze. He closed his final 100m so quickly (13.0 seconds, the same as Hocker), that he almost was able to nip Kerr at the line for silver, but the Scotsman held him off by .01 seconds.

Here’s what they said:

“I think the headlines were about them, rightfully so. It’s Olympic champion and World Champion, so everyone knows the caliber of athletes they are. The headlines made sense. Speaking personally, it can be nice to fly under the radar as much as I can in the Olympics. I think most people in the race knew I was a competitor, same with Yared, but it was another thing to not have all that noise. I feel like I took advantage of it.”

- Cole Hocker on most of the media attention in the leadup to this race focusing on Ingebrigtsen and Kerr.

“I did this in Budapest last year where I was uncomfortable. For lack of better words, I was soft and I didn’t go with it. I just told myself, ‘Don’t be soft. You’ve gotta go with it, you’re going to regret this for the rest of your life if you don’t go with it.’ I’m so glad I told myself that. I was like, ‘I’m going to hate myself if I don’t close this immediately, because those guys won’t give you an inch if you give it to them.’”

- Hocker on sticking with the early hot pace to give himself a chance when things came down to the wire.

“We have a lot of storylines this year, back and forth with me and Jakob and things like that, but I know how talented that 12-man field of the best 1500 meter runners in the world is in the last four years. I knew that there was going to be threats coming from the Americans getting through to the final. They were going to come away with at least one medal I thought. I have a lot of respect for everyone. Cole (Hocker) put together a performance that is the best that the Olympics has ever seen. That’s good enough for me for silver today and it’ll get me hungry.”

- Josh Kerr on not overlooking the rest of the field in face of his rivalry with Ingebrigtsen.

“There’s not a ton of expectations for me to perform. Me and Cole still both thought we could go win this race and that no matter what was being said, (we were) going to go for it because it’s the Olympics and why not? But still, that belief is the most important thing, to be able to come away with one and three like we did.”

- Yared Nuguse on most of the media attention in the leadup to this race focusing on Ingebrigtsen and Kerr.

“Well, I guess he did show up after all…! Hocker and Nuguse as well. My team always say that ‘because you have a big mouth and is the one to beat, you have everything to lose in competitions’. Today, Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Josh Kerr outsmarted me. They were ‘the best guys’ when it really mattered. And I want to congratulate them all on a great performance!”

- Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s message to his competitors via Instagram.

By the numbers:

- Hocker broke the Olympic record set by Ingebrigtsen in Tokyo. 3:27.65 also breaks Nuguse’s 1500m World Athletics-acknowledged American and NACAC record from last June (Nuguse also dipped under that mark). Hocker joins Matt Centrowitz as the only American men to win this title in the last 112 years. After going 40 years without medaling, an American has now landed on the podium in three of the last four Olympics – Leo Manzano took silver in 2012.

- Kerr shaved well over a second off his PB, breaking Mo Farah’s British record in the 1500m in the process. Including his bronze from Tokyo, Kerr joins Seb Coe as the only British men to secure multiple Olympic medals in this event.

- Nuguse landing on the podium – his first at an outdoor major championship – means it’s the first time that two American men have medaled in this event since Abel Kiviat and Norman Taber in 1912. It’s the first time that two countrymen have made the podium since Noah Ngeny and Bernard Lagat did so in 2000.

- Hocker, Kerr and Nuguse are now the seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-fastest men in history over this distance.

- Ingebrigtsen still managed to cross the line in fourth in 3:28.24, which would place him 10th all-time if he hadn’t already run faster than that three times in his career.

- Hobbs Kessler finished fifth in a PB of 3:29.45, dropping over two seconds off his PB from the U.S. Trials. Hocker, Nuguse, and Kessler are now situated first, second, and fourth on the all-time American list according to World Athletics.

- Niels Laros and Pietro Arese, who finished sixth and eighth, set new Dutch and Italian records in 3:29.54 and 3:30.74, respectively.

Full results:

1. Cole Hocker - 3:27.65 OR

2. Josh Kerr - 3:27.79 NR

3. Yared Nuguse - 3:27.80

4. Jakob Ingebrigtsen - 3:28.24

5. Hobbs Kessler - 3:29.45

6. Niels Laros - 3:29.54 NR

7. Narve Gilje Nordås - 3:30.46

8. Pietro Arese - 3:30.74 NR

9. Stefan Nillessen - 3:30.75

10. Neil Gourley - 3:30.88

11. Timothy Cheruiyot - 3:31.35

12. Brian Komen - 3:35.59

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