Dyeing the chronicle of a 1,500m test involving Jakob Ingebrigtsen, an invincible 22-year-old boy indifferent to the feelings of the world, with drama, is not the tricky and useless maneuver that gives shine to some rallies when this is the final. of a World Cup played in the oven of a nocturnal Budapest humidified by the vapors of the tremendous neighboring Danube. Copying Gabo, Ingebrigtsen almost always forces the chronicle of an announced victory. Athletics denies anyone who wants to go for the Colombian Nobel Prize. Athletics, on the night of Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s second defeat in a World Cup final, has, like a year ago in Eugene, the name and surname of a Briton, Josh Kerr, a 25-year-old Scotsman from Edinburgh, who copies the English Jake Wightman in a race that is a copy of the last World Cup, and, in 200 meters, a curve and a straight line, he attacks and knocks down. 53s in the last 400m. And he wins. 3m 29.38s the 1,500m. Less than three tenths behind comes the Norwegian who is an Olympic champion but not a world champion (3m 29.65s) and only three hundredths later his compatriot Narve Gilje Nordas (3m 29.68s). And they all look surprised. The stadium. The people in front of the TV. It is 1,500m.
“I woke up with a bad throat. I haven’t felt well”, says Ingebrigtsen, arrogant even in grief: “I was at 88% of my capacity. If I had been at 92%, maybe I would have been able to win. But it wasn’t me.”
It is the world of Jakob Ingebrigtsen, arrogant, convinced of his invincibility, who manages the race at will, like a magician with a magic wand. He contemplates and chooses. Haircut and marine attitude with ray ban. sharp head Greco-Roman tattoos. Bullfighter. Don’t worry. Cold. The clichés required by the Scandinavian native of Stavanger, Norway, nail the character, his way of moving, his pose. Calm, security, increases knowledge. The English Jake Wightman, the athlete who controlled him and surprised him and defeated him a year ago in the 1,500m World Cup in Eugene, is absent, injured. He does not exist. In the semifinals, the rivals he feared the most fell: Mo Katir, who got closer to him every day and even made him nervous at times, and Tim Cheruiyot, the Kenyan world champion in 2019. Ingebrigtsen, Olympic champion in 2021, wants to be world champion. He wants it more than anything. The frustration multiplies. He can do as in the semifinal, pretend clumsy and overtake everyone in a curve at 150 meters and greet the line at the same time.
You can repeat your Eugene tactic front runner that he likes so much and that he clashed with Wightman. Repeat tactic. The one with the lost final, like the stubborn golfer who is convinced that his ball does not go in, not because of his bad shot but because reality does not behave as it should behave, and repeats his mistake. He chooses wrong. For 1,300 meters the track is yours. Pace of 3m 30s 56s the 400m, 1.54 the 800m. He doesn’t look behind him, but those who follow him are not the little lambs he thought were trained, fatalists. Resigned. Those behind are approaching, he feels them. Amidst the shouting of the full stadium, the 11 chasing him are not in a race to be second or third. Podium. medals. No heroics. Awareness. They seek victory. They believe in her.
Eleven fight. Among them, and he is not one of the smallest, Mario García Romo, from Villar de Gallimazo, Salamanca, already fourth in 2022, when Katir was third, when it was revealed. Everyone calculates and adjusts their run to the pace. The 56s with which they spend the first 400 meters are not what García Romo and his friend and roommate and training partner in Colorado want Yared Nuguse. With him he embraces, good luck, before placing himself on the starting line.
Ingebrigtsen cannot abuse. He can’t keep record pace. On Friday he must put the nails back on for his second challenge, to repeat the gold in the 5,000m that he achieved in 2022. With that pace, 3.30m, everyone else can dream. Seven have come down from that barrier this summer. They feel the same. They grow up and mistrust. The objective is to arrive well placed to the last 300 meters. The British Josh Kerr, medalist in Tokyo, handles himself with experience. More nervous, Nuguse, rookie at this level. Niels Laros, the 18-year-old Dutchman, dreams. In his cloud. Nordas, the 24-year-old Norwegian who Jakob’s father began to train when, last year, the son told him that he could fly alone, does not make noise. Discreet, he does not attract attention. He doesn’t move from his place. He waits for his moment. He doesn’t go one step too far. Patient. The distance from him is the last 300m.
Kerr, the one who knows the most, Wightman’s friend, walks over. He knows that just hearing his footsteps will unnerve Ingebrigtsen, who stumbles when Kerr attacks. He tries to shut him down. He gets upset. He refuses to give in. The melee continues in the final stretch. There, the magician, Ingebrigtsen, the one of infinite changes, stays dry. He relents again. “I’m overwhelmed with the win,” says Kerr, who races wearing streamlined sunglasses so he won’t be dazzled by the headlights, to accentuate the tunnel effect. “I feel very proud of myself, but I didn’t feel like I ran my best race. I just put my 16-year track and field career into the last 200m and didn’t stop until the end.”
Behind them, they all open up in the fight for third place. The final speed allows García Romo, who has been running behind all the time and is penultimate before the deafening bell, to finish sixth (3m 30.26s).
The 1,500m, the most complicated race, the one that requires intelligence and legs, and faith, triumphs again. Athleticism.
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