Jakob Ingebrigtsen: The Best Off-Distance Runner Of All-Time?

Ingebrigtsen is incredible in the 1500m (hot take, I know), and his three straight global titles in the 5000m show loads of untapped potential if he enters a non-championship race at that distance. But good lord, but him in a Diamond League race at any distance in between those two and he’s going to do something ridiculous.

The chapter he wrote today in his book of performances that make you go “Huh?” was taking three seconds off Daniel Komen’s 28-year-old 3000m world record, crossing the line in an insane time of 7:17.55. That’s two 3:38.7 1500m races back-to-back. He took what we thought was a really good crack at this record at last year’s Prefontaine Classic, but “only” managed 7:23.63. Granted that was a day after running the third-fastest mile in history, but he still found a way to take six whole seconds off that time! This guy is crazy!

Ingebrigtsen tucked in right behind the pacers from the gun, and through a little more than 2000m he had some company from Ethiopians Berihu Aregawi and Yomif Kejelcha (who finished .01 behind Ingebrigtsen in this race at Pre last September). Over the course of his 2:22.25 last kilometer, he dropped everyone, however, and eventually even dropped the pace lights. He came to the bell needing to close in about 58.5 to get the world record. At that point it was clear he would at least be able to do that, but he proceeded to close in 55.45. For reference, he came through the final 400m in the Olympic 1500m final in 54.7.

When it comes to non-championship distances, Ingebrigtsen now owns world records in both the 2000m and the 3000m and the world best performance in the two mile race, and as previously mentioned is the third-fastest miler in history. A quick reminder because it’s easy to forget sometimes, he doesn’t turn 24 until next month.

Aregawi fell off of Ingebrigtsen’s pace over the closing stages, but he still came through in 7:21.28, setting a new Ethiopian record and becoming the third-fastest man in history. It’ll be overshadowed by just how spectacular the world record run was, but the young Ethiopian still deserves his flowers. National records also went to Canada’s Moh Ahmed, South Africa’s Adriaan Wildschutt, and the Netherlands’ Mike Foppen. This was Wildschutt’s fourth South African record of 2024.

Mondo Does It Again In Historic Pole Vault Competition

With his 6.26m second-attempt clearance today, Mondo Duplantis has officially jumped 10cm higher than any other man in history. He broke the world record for the 10th time in his career and the third time this year. He hadn’t had two world record jumps this close together (20 days since the Olympic final) since he jumped 6.19m and 6.20m 13 days apart in March of 2022. It’s truly insane that all you can really do when talking about how good Duplantis is is to compare today’s competition to all the other times he’s broken the world record.

Behind Duplantis, there was a bit of history as well, as we saw three men clear the six meter barrier in the same competition for the first time in history. Olympic silver medalist Sam Kendricks cleared 6.00m on his second attempt, marking his first time over a bar that high since September of 2020. This was the fifth time in his career he’s cleared six meters, breaking a tie with Chris Nilsen for the second-most ever by an American (Jeff Hartwig leads the way with seven). Kendricks took three good attempts at a would-be American record of 6.08m, but wasn’t quite able to manage that today.

Capping off the podium repeat from Paris was Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, who became the 29th member of the six meter club with his third attempt clearance. Karalis has tacked 14cm onto his PB this year and is now nine centimeters better than any other Greek vaulter in history.

A Stacked Pre-Program Delivers

This morning’s meet had an impressive slate of events before the broadcast window got underway, and these athletes put on quite a show that unfortunately no one outside of the stadium was able to see.

The premier event was slated to be the men’s 100m, where Olympic medalists Kishane Thompson and Fred Kerley were set for a rematch. Thompson unfortunately pulled out just before the race got underway and Kerley made the absolute most of it. Kerley got out well, but had a bit of ground to make up in the later stages of the race on Ferdinand Omanyala and Ackeem Blake to his inside.

The race came down to the absolute last moment, as Kerley beat both Omanyala and Blake to the line in 9.87. The top three were separated by only two hundredths-of-a-second, with Omanyala crossing the tape in 9.88 and Blake coming through in 9.89. Kerley equalled Ronnie Baker’s meet record from 2017 and has posted 9.81 (Olympic 100m final), 19.86 (Lausanne 200m), and 9.87 in his last three individual races. He’s closing his season incredibly well and could have something big in store in the last few Diamond Leagues of the year.

There were also strong fields in both men’s hurdle races, and it was back to business and usual for Grant Holloway and Karsten Warholm as they rebounded nicely from losses last time out. For Holloway, that last race was a loss to Rasheed Broadbell on Thursday in Lausanne, but he was able to get the better of his Jamaican rival this morning, edging him out in 13.04 to 13.05. This was Warholm’s first race since taking silver in Paris, and without either of Alison dos Santos or Rai Benjamin on the startlist you could’ve confidently penciled him in for a win before the gun even went off. Still, setting a meet record at 46.95 and recording the 13th sub-47 clocking of his career is an impressive showing. Second place in this one went to the young Frenchmen Clement Ducos in a PB of 47.42 as he continued an impressive late season push. The University of Tennessee standout moved from 10th to sixth on the all-dates collegiate list with this run.

There was an impressive array of throwing events too, as Joe Kovacs won a battle of the two greatest shot putters in history, beating Ryan Crouser by two centimeters in 22.14m to 22.12m. There were simultaneous men’s and women’s hammer competitions, where the two fields shared the same circle and were trading off rounds. World and Olympic champion Ethan Katzberg went over 80m for the ninth time this year, winning with a mark of 80.03m, and 2022 World champion Brooke Andersen won the women’s competition by over four meters at 76.19m. This was Andersen’s first competition in over a month after failing to make the U.S. Olympic team, and her mark today would’ve been good enough for silver in Paris.

Other Highlights:

- Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent put together a stellar day of hurdling this morning. She ran 12.30 in the first round, and then was visibly limping after the race. Clearly it didn’t bother her too much, though, as she came back a little over an hour later and ran 12.29 into a headwind to take the win against a stereotypically great field. Grace Stark finished second in 12.38, making it back-to-back runner-up finishes for her on the Diamond League circuit. She’s now run the 10 fastest times of her career this year, and her best wind reading in any of those races was only +.7 m/s from the Olympic final.

- Many of the same men who ran the 800m in Lausanne three days ago were back in this one, and the result was a slightly toned down race when compared to the absurdity of the last month-and-a-half. Marco Arop was leading at the bell, like we saw on Thursday, but this time he was actually able to open up a gap on Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi over the final 400m, as we saw some signs of fatigue in the 20-year-old Kenyan’s legs for the first time in what felt like forever. Arop came through for the win in 1:41.86. That’s still incredibly quick, we’ve just been a little spoiled. Arop broke a four-race losing streak to Wanyonyi, as he settled for second in 1:43.23, his slowest time in a final in three months.

- Olympic champs Marileidy Paulino and Letsile Tebogo kept up their winning ways in the sprints, as Paulino comfortably took down a near carbon copy of the Olympic 400m final in 48.66. Tebogo’s win was a bit dicier, as he didn’t run a great bend and was sitting fourth at the 110m mark. Despite this shaky start, he found some strength deep in that “third-fastest 4x400m split in history” well to catch back up to the field and take the win in 19.83. Paulino’s countryman, Alexander Ogando, ran a new Dominican record of 19.86 to finish second, ahead of Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek.

- Diribe Welteji won a Kipyegon-less women’s 1500m in 3:57.08, but the most interesting result from this race was Poland’s Klaudia Kazimierska running 3:59.95 to finish sixth on her home turf. The Oregon Duck becomes only the third collegian to ever break four minutes, joining Addy Wiley and Jenny Simpson (née Barringer), and the fifth Pole to ever do so.

- Tia Clayton closed out the track action with a win in the women’s 100m, doing so in a windy (+2.9 m/s) 10.83. She was challenged to the line by Marie Josée Ta Lou-Smith, who crossed the tape in 10.83 as well but lost out on thousandths. Third place finisher Tamari Davis wasn’t far off, running 10.84.