The top four athletes from the Olympic 1500m final will face off in rematch at the Letzigrund Stadium in Switzerland
Cole Hocker, Josh Kerr, Yared Nuguse and Jakob Ingebrigtsen will compete against each other at the Zürich Diamond League (September 5), in what will be a repeat of the Olympic 1500m final.
Less than a second separated the quartet at the Stade de France as Hocker took a historic win in an Olympic record of 3:27.65, going seventh on the 1500m all-time list.
Kerr set a British 1500m record of 3:27.79 – breaking Mo Farah’s 3:28.81 from 2013 – to claim the silver medal, while Nuguse became the second fastest US athlete in history with 3:27.80 for bronze.
After all the talk between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen in the build-up to Paris, the Norwegian settled for fourth in 3:28.24.
Olympic 1500m final (Getty)
With no pacemakers or wave light technology, Ingebrigtsen – in an attempt to avoid being overtaken late on, like in the previous two world championships – attempted to run the Olympic final gun-to-tape.
He opened up with a 54.9 second first lap – at that point Ingebrigtsen was on world record pace – before going through 800m in 1:51.50.
The field was strung out but the likes of Kerr, Nuguse, Hocker and Timothy Cheruiyot stayed with Ingebrigtsen.
Just after the 1200m mark, the Brit and the two Americans pounced. Cheruiyot couldn’t keep up with the pace any longer and with 100m to go, as Kerr went round the outside of Ingebrigtsen, Hocker made a dash for home on the inside.
The American held his arms aloft when crossing the line first, in front of a stunned crowd at the Stade de France.
They will now do it all again in Zürich and this time round there will be pacemakers and wave light technology.
Yared Nuguse pips Josh Kerr (Getty)
Ingebrigtsen didn’t compete in the 1500m at last year’s Weltklasse Zürich and it was a race won by Nuguse in 3:30.49 to Kerr’s 3:30.51. Hocker finished ninth in 3:32.00.
With the foursome in such good shape right now, expect fast times in Zürich.
They might not beat Hicham El Guerrouj’s world record of 3:26.00 from 1998 but it could be an incredibly quick race.
The Zürich Diamond League will be the penultimate one of the season, with the final in Brussels on September 13-14.
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