A minute or so after winning an Olympic 1500m final, Jakob Ingebrigtsen was still running. It is all he’s ever known, growing up under the tutelage of his father’s intense training regime with his six siblings, a unique physiological experiment which reached its emphatic conclusion in Tokyo with dominant gold and an Olympic record of 3:28.32.
The 20-year-old Norwegian has spent a decade preparing for this moment, and he delivered on his prodigious talent with a flourish, powering around the world champion Timothy Cheruiyot on the final bend. Cheruiyot held on for silver in 3:29.01 and Britain’s Josh Kerr took a brilliant bronze in 3:29.05.
It is 33 years since Britain have won a men’s Olympic 1500m medal; the 23-year-old Scot had talked the talk before the Games, insisting he was coming for gold, and although he fell short of that ambitious target his first medal on the global stage hints at a special future.
More to follow…