By Chris Chavez
June 16, 2023
Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen continued winning with a 3:27.95 victory at the Oslo Diamond League on Thursday to become the sixth-fastest man in history. Yared Nuguse finished third in 3:29.02 to become the American holder.
Here’s what you need to know:
– Last week, Ingebrigtsen broke the world record for the two-mile in 7:54.10 at the Paris Diamond League.
– Ingebrigtsen entered the day with a personal best of 3:28.32 from the Tokyo Olympic final.
– While there were rumors of a potential world record attempt, no one came close to Hicham El Guerrouj’s 3:26.00 world record from 1997.
– After Paris, he told CITIUS MAG, “I see it as one of the biggest challenges I’m going to face during my running career.”
– At last year’s Oslo Diamond League, he ran 3:46.46 for the fastest mile performance in 21 years. He is No. 6 on the all-time mile list.
– He opened up his 2023 outdoor season with a 3:32.59 win at the Rabat Diamond League last month.
How the race played out in Oslo:
Ingebrigtsen glued himself to the pacer from the get-go and pressed from the front. The only man to glue himself to Ingebrigtsen's heels was world championship bronze medalist Mohamed Katir, who gave it a formidable challenge but Ingebrigtsen just pulled away in the final 150m to win in 3:27.95 and led seven other men under 3:30.
Why is there confusion over the American record?
– World Athletics considers Nuguse’s performance the American record because they deem the previous record as 3:29.30 by Bernard Lagat in Rieti in Aug. 2005.
– USATF recognizes Lagat’s 3:27.40 as the American record because he was a dual-citizen at the time but was still representing Kenya on the international stage.
– CITIUS MAG is considering Nuguse’s performance as the American record.
What Jakob Ingebrigtsen said afterward:
When you crossed the line, it looked like it was a bit more of an emotional feeling than even the two-mile world record last week.
“The 1500m is my main event. It’s the event I want to perform the best and run the fastest. Right now, it’s what I’m focused on. Being able to run faster than 3:28 is something I’ve dreamt of for a long time. It’s a good sign running faster than you ever have before. It’s a lot of good things we can work on going forward.”
I think you’re bringing a lot more to the sport than just your own performances. There was 8 guys tonight under 3:30 and it was all because they were trying to chase you down. You’re bringing the sport to a new level. How’s that make you feel?
“I don’t think they were trying to chase me down. I think they tried to hold on for as long as they could. Obviously, that’s a big benefit. I would love to do it myself but unfortunately, there’s no one.”
Every time you come into a race, you know you’re going to have to be the person that’s going to have to get in behind the pacemaker. Does that bother you at any stage or do you just know you have to do it to get those times?
“If I want to run fast, I have to do it myself. That’s just how it is. I can’t be disappointed with that. That’s just how it is. The fastest guy needs to run from the front if he wants to run fast. If not, we’re going to run 10 seconds slower.
What Yared Nuguse said afterward:
American record. PB. How did it feel out there?
“Thank you. It felt really good. I managed to get out of all the crap. I knew it was going to be a hard race with such a deep field. I managed to get out in a great position, stay there and hang on the best I could. I managed to really come away with the fastest thing I’ve run in a really long time. I was super psyched about that. I was super pumped to come away with that and I’m excited for what’s to come next.”
Learning from Rabat, it’s clear that you got out HARD. Obviously, that had to be part of the plan tonight.
“I really wanted to put myself in a position to win no matter what. In Rabat, I was testing out the waters a bit. Now, I’m a bit more sure of myself and how I want to race in my professional career. Getting out and staying with the best guys is right where I want to be and that’s where I finished.”
You’re only a year out of the NCAA system. Did you imagine you’d be where you are now?
“No. Absolutely not. I figured I’d have success eventually in the years to come. To have so much so soon has been a real blessing and really amazing. I’m super pumped that I made the right choice for my pro career and with everything I’ve been doing in general to have such success like this.”
We also have interviews with Olli Hoare and Josh Kerr.
Other highlights from the meet:
– Karsten Warholm is back. The Olympic champion and world record holder clocked the fourth-fastest 400m hurdles time in history with a 46.52 for his outdoor hurdles opener. He overtook Rai Benjamin (47.74 SB) as the world leader.
– Femke Bol ran a world-leading 52.30s to win the 400m hurdles. She is undefeated in all of her 2023 races. She is now .92 seconds ahead of the next-fastest woman in the world, Britton Wilson. She also owns the three fastest times of the year. World champion and Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has yet to hurdle this year.
– 17-year-old Ethiopian Birke Haylom set a U20 women’s mile record with a 4:17.13 victory in the Dream Mile. Cory McGee finished second in 4:18.11 and Nikki Hiltz took fourth in 4:18.38 to move into No. 3 and No. 4 on the U.S. all-time outdoor mile list.
– The Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou ran a world-leading 10.75 for 100m. She told us that it will take “200% of me” to crack the Jamaicans for a medal at Worlds.
– In one of the most thrilling 5000m races of all-time Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha and Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo battled to the finish line of the men’s 5000m and clocked the fifth-fastest time in history with a 12:41.73. Kejelcha ended up getting the win in a photo finish. They closed the final lap in 55.75. Joe Klecker finished fourth in 12:56.59 to just outlean Luis Grijalva by .04 seconds.
– Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet set a meet record and world lead for the 3000m in 8:25.01. Alicia Monson was the top American in the race with a 8:29.43 run for fourth place on the day. She becomes the first American woman to run under 8:30 twice in her career.
– World championship bronze medalist Erriyon Knighton ran 19.77s to win the 200m. He moves to No. 3 in the world for the year.
– Olympic and world champion Yulimar Rojas opened her 2023 outdoor campaign with a 14.91m (+2.1) victory in the women’s triple jump.
– 2016 Olympic champion and world record holder Wayde Van Niekerk competed in his first Diamond League since 2017 and won the men’s 400m in 44.38s ahead of Commonwealth Games champion Muzala Samukonga.
– NCAA champion Jorinde van Klinken beat Olympic champion Valarie Allman with a 66.77m throw.
– Olympic champion, world champion and world record holder Mondo Duplantis won the men’s pole vault with a 6.01m clearance.
– Poland’s Wojciech Nowicki threw a world-leading 81.92m in the hammer throw.
What comes next?
The Diamond League’s next stop will be in Lausanne on June 30.
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
