Josh Kerr believes his Olympic duels with Jakob Ingebrigtsen are at an end after the Norwegian missed out on a 1500metre medal in a thrilling final in the Stade de France.
The race had been billed as a straight duel between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen, who have been verbally sparring off the track for the past year, but both were upstaged by American Cole Hocker across the line
It is the third successive global final in which Ingebrigtsen has been beaten to 1500m gold and the first one in which he has come away empty handed after a fourth-place finish.
And Kerr suggested there would not be a third Olympic Games head-to-head between them in Los Angeles in four years’ time having also sparred for the medals in Tokyo.
“I don’t envy running the 5,000 today,” said Kerr ahead of the heats over the longer distance facing his Norwegian rival. “That’s hard work.
“He’s obviously pretty dominant in the 5,000. We’ll see. I can’t see him running the 1,500 for a whole another Olympic cycle but he’s running really fast times so that’s not for me to determine. I’ll be sticking to the 1,500m.”
Kerr and Ingebrigtsen had exchanged constant barbs since the Briton edged out his rival in the World Championships final in Budapest last year. Kerr accused him of lacking manners and said he had a number of weaknesses, while Ingebrigtsen hit back suggesting Kerr never turned up to races outside the major championships.
But in the immediate aftermath, Ingebrigtsen offered an olive branch on social media. He wrote: “Well, I guess he did show up after all. My team always say that, ‘because you have a big mouth and is the one to beat, you have everything to lose in competitions’.
“Today, Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Josh Kerr outsmarted me. The were the best guys when it really mattered. And I want to congratulate them all on a great performance!”
Speaking this morning, Kerr said he had yet to see the Instagram post. He said: “I’ve heard that he’s said something nice. I’ll believe it when I see it.
“It was a big race, a fast race, he took it out pretty hard yesterday which is a very brave move. I think both of us got beaten by a better man.”
Kerr revealed he had met up with family, friends and sponsors in a Parisian bar late on Tuesday night and said that in terms of a night’s sleep that it had been “minutes versus hours”.
In addition, he wasn’t feeling the freshest having had a handful of pints because his “hand was full at all times”. He added: “My head’s a little sore this morning but that’s better than the legs being sore”.
Kerr had looked to be on his way to gold when he passed Ingebrigtsen down the home straight only for Hocker to surprise them both up the inside to take an unexpected win in a captivating finish at the Paris Olympics.
Kerr still clinched a British record come the finish, which he said was a silver lining, and admitted he was still processing how the race had played out during his media duties throughout the day.
Reflecting on the race, he said: “It’s one of those things where obviously I set my stall out of what I wanted. But to come away with Olympic silver medal is better than Olympic bronze and I’m working towards the next goal.”
Among those goals is for Netflix to now turn the cameras on the world’s best middle-distance runners following the success of Sprint, the first series of which documented the sprinters in the lead-up to the World Championships.
“I think it would be cool, I think there would be compelling stories,” he said. “I think a lot of the guys are pretty boring! But if you’re going to pick another discipline, it’s difficult not to look at the men’s 1,500m.”
