Cole Hocker grabs shock USA gold in 1500 metres with Olympic record time

Two men, the world’s two best 1500m runners, so fixated on each other that in their bid to land the killer blow on their arch nemesis, they let someone else sneak up and pickpocket their most treasured prize.

Enter Cole Hocker, creeping up the inside on the home straight of the Olympic 1500m final as if no one would notice, sprinting his way to gold and slaying the two beasts of his event.

It was the American – and not Kerr, not Ingebrigtsen – who reigned supreme in Paris tonight in an Olympic record of 3:27.65.

At Stade de France, which had thrummed with the roars of 75,000 fans for the minutes prior – a wall of sound following the athletes around the track – there was a stunned, surreal quietening soon after they hit the finish.

Ingebrigtsen had walked out for the final last of all, the reigning champion from Norway holding one finger in the air before jogging to the start line. He had run three global 1500m finals since winning the Olympic title back in 2021. He’d been outkicked in them all. His weakness is his finishing speed, or lack of it, and having been thrice bitten by those with a dangerous venom, he was quadruply shy of letting the pace dawdle here.

And so he tried to turn this into a Diamond League, churning out a 54-second first lap before hitting 800m in 1:51. That’s fast. On the third lap he kept turning the screw, noting the impact he was having in splintering the pack, with former world champion Timothy Cheruiyot struggling to hold pace behind him and Kerr back in third. “I felt very strong the first couple of laps and that’s why I had difficulty telling the pace, to slow down,” said Ingebrigtsen. “I saw I got a little bit of a gap so I kept pushing.” With 550m to run he had some daylight and in hindsight, this was his chance to press on, to land the killer punch on the men behind. But he was already flat out. There were no more gears here. As he headed into the final bend, Kerr did what everyone thought he would, looming up on his shoulder, poised to strike. Ingebrigtsen was suddenly bankrupt.

“In a 1500, the pace is so fast and with me opening so strong, you can’t tell 100% you’re hitting the wall before you hit it,” he said.

Kerr, it seemed, was about to fulfil the thing he long saw as his destiny. But he forgot to close the door on the inside. Always shut the door. Into that gap soon came Hocker, the big-kicking American. Kerr dug deep to find something extra. Bridge to engine room: more power. But there was none remaining.

And so across the line came Hocker, the 23-year-old Indiana native winning one of the greatest 1500m finals in history.

“I can’t even put it into words,” he told the BBC. “I feel so proud of myself for taking advantage of an opportunity because those are so few and far between.” The noise had been a rich symphony throughout, heralding the greatness of this race. “That was unlike anything I’ve very experienced,” said Hocker. “During the race it was deafening – overwhelming in the best way possible.” Kerr, who had to make do with silver in a British record of 3:27.79, said it was “not the colour medal” he wanted but reminded everyone: “I’m 26, this road is not over.” USA’s Yared Nuguse took bronze while back in fourth, Ingebrigtsen was magnanimous in defeat, no matter how much it stung. “My plan was to win, it didn’t go according to plan,” he said. “The guys behind, finishing in front, ran a great race.”