USA’s Cole Hocker wins 1500m gold

PARIS: USA’s Cole Hocker won the men’s 1500m -- in an Olympic record -- to push world champion Josh Kerr to silver while Hocker’s teammate Yared Nuguse claimed bronze in what will go down as one of the biggest upsets of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen missing the podium was perhaps a bigger surprise than Hocker winning the title. All four other finals on Tuesday (6 August) largely went to form as world leader Gabby Thomas won the women’s 200m, and world champions Winfred Yavi (steeplechase), Camryn Rogers (hammer) and Miltiadis Tentoglou (long jump) added more gold to their medal collection.

Ingebrigtsen led the 1500m from the outset, setting a brisk pace that no one would be able to stick to. Or at least that’s what he hoped. It didn’t quite play out that way, though, as Kenya’s Brian Komen tracked him for the first few laps, closely followed by Kerr.

When Ingebrigtsen started his big kick on the final lap, Kerr and the US trio -- Hocker, Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler -- were all still close to the Norwegian. Kerr started to close on the final bend, but Hocker was gaining momentum on the pair and eventually passed them halfway down the home straight.

Hocker forged ahead to win in a lifetime best of 3:27.65 while Kerr took silver with a British record of 3:27.79. Nuguse set a PB of 3:27.80 for bronze while Ingebrigtsen clocked 3:28.24 in fourth.

While the men’s 1500m was full of surprises, the women’s 200m was less shocking as USA’s Gabby Thomas lived up to her pre-event favourite status to take gold in 21.83. She came off the bend level with 100m champion Julien Alfred and Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, but then pulled clear in the home straight to win by a couple of metres. Alfred took silver -- doubling St Lucia’s all-time Olympic medal count -- in 22.07, while USA’s Brittany Brown came through for bronze in 22.20.

The opening pace in the women’s 3000m steeplechase was swift, with world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech leading the field through 1000m in 2:55.1. The next kilometre was covered in a more casual 3:02.5 with six women – including Yavi, Chepkoech and defending champion Peruth Chemutai – forming a breakaway lead pack.

Chemutai started to kick on the final lap but couldn’t shake off the challenge of Bahrain’s Yavi, who kicked into the lead with 100 meters to go and won in an Olympic record of 8:52.76. Chemutai claimed silver in a Ugandan record of 8:53.34 and Kenya’s Faith Cherotich came through for bronze (8:55.15).

For a while in the women’s hammer, it looked as though another reigning world champion and pre-event favourite would be upstaged by a US champion, as had happened in the men’s 1500m. But Canada’s Camryn Rogers came through to win gold with her fifth-round throw of 76.97m.

In the first two rounds, it was China’s Zhao Jie who posed the biggest threat as she took the lead in round two with 74.27m. Rogers responded with 74.47m, but then USA’s Annette Echikunwoke sent her hammer out to 75.48m to leapfrog Rogers and Zhao.

Rogers came close to that with 75.44m in round four, but she then produced her winning throw in round five. Echikunwoke and Zhao held on to silver and bronze respectively, while three-time Olympic champion Anita Wlodarczyk came within four centimetres of the podium, placing fourth with 74.23m.