A month since the greatest Olympic 1500m in history, the four men involved at the death in Paris will face off again at the Zurich Diamond League on Thursday and, once again, it promises to be spicy – on and off the track.
That much was clear at the pre-race press conference when Britain’s Josh Kerr was asked about the best quality of his Norwegian rival, Jakob Ingebrigtsen. “I would say his dress sense,” Kerr said. “That would be No 1.”
Given that Ingebrigtsen is not known for being stylish, Kerr sounded more than a little churlish. Especially when the Norwegian then graciously praised Kerr’s ability to produce “his best race when it really matters” when asked about his best quality.
Kerr’s comment, however, spoke volumes about his level of intent. The Olympic silver medallist is not here to pick up a paycheck, but to take down Ingebrigtsen and the American Cole Hocker, who overtook him 10 metres from the line in Paris to claim a shock gold medal, with Yared Neguse winning bronze. Kerr doesn’t want a repeat of that night in Paris – but revenge.
The Scot has not raced since, but he revealed he has spent three and a half weeks training at altitude to get ready. “I knew that this was going to be a main event for me, so I just wanted to get it right,” he said.
While Kerr has been training, Ingebrigtsen has been laying down a succession of markers – including winning the Olympic 5,000m title, thrashing Hocker over 1500m in Lausanne before shattering a 3,000m world record that had stood for 28 years in Silesia. The Norwegian is the man to beat.
However, he played down talk of chasing down the 1500m world record after getting ill last week. “Unfortunately, I got an infection after my race in Poland so I’ve not had the best preparations,” he said. “Everybody told me that I shouldn’t be here. So is it going to be a world record? Maybe not. But there’s a lot of people that are coming to see some good action – and I think that’s what they’re going to get.”
Ingebrigtsen also couldn’t resist a dig at Kerr – as he praised Hocker for continuing to compete on the circuit after winning in Paris. “It would have been easy for him to just say: ‘OK, I got what I wanted and I’m out.’ But he’s here, so I think it says a lot about him as a person and as an athlete. He is here for the long run. He doesn’t just want to pack his bag and go home.”
That was a thinly veiled reference to Kerr, who ended his season after winning the 2023 world title rather than race Ingebrigtsen at the Diamond League final. A gold medal may not be up for grabs in Zurich but bragging rights certainly will be.
Elsewhere on a packed night of action, the 100m world champion Sha’Carri Richardson has a rematch against the Olympic gold medallist Julien Alfred. There could also be a world record in the women’s 5,000m, with the Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet chasing down the 14min 00.21sec time set by Gudaf Tsegay last year.
