Trackland | The Gold Rush
 

The Gold Rush

 
Words Jeff Merrill
 
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he was a 3:30 guy.
 
Surely it wasn’t entirely deliberate. Cole Hocker is a mystery.
 
It’s what his friends and teammates say. He’s aloof and perfectly comfortable with who he is. He’s also a mystery to the track world.
 
Back when kickers ruled the 1500m, it’s not that we just wanted races to be fast, it was always going to be at some point in the distance. What we wanted was for everyone to have the courage to play their best hand.
 
For strength runners to press and kickers to pounce. And the whole spectrum in between to move and act on their abilities blessed upon them by the almighty, or the genetic lottery, or their upbringing or guidance or self-drive. Change the ors to ands. We wanted all of it.  Because that is what those athletes are on the line, products of everything that made them and got them to this point. They didn’t just tumble onto the starting line.
 
We wanted to see the best athletes in the world lean into their strengths, because to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.
 
Jakob Ingebrigtsen gave us everything we wanted. He went to the front and leaned into his strength without fear. 54.9 through the opening quarter and 1:51.3 through 800. He had run 3:26.7 in a paced 1500m and he believed he could drive the sting out of the world’s best until they all dropped off. Strength runners rely on brute force, punishing themselves and the field. The tough truth with strength runners is that if they play their hand often, we get a pretty good idea of what they are and where their limits lie in their earned fitness.
 
It's why so many picked Ingebrigtsen to win, because he pushes himself to his limits more than any runner on the scene.
 
Because of Ingebrigtsen’s presence, we know the limits of many others. They cross the line behind him.
 
We know now that Ingebrigtsen can run flat out in a solo 3:28 effort, something that’s never been done before until now.
 
We don’t know exactly what Cole Hocker is. We know he can streak like a scalded cat. Before today we knew he could run the spit out of a final 300- 39 seconds in a 3:30 race, and that 3:30 was the fastest he’d run.
 
I might be in the minority here, but I never want to see Cole Hocker run a time trial. The mystery is too spellbinding.
 
The goal of this sport has always been to win. In the precious un-paced realms of championship racing, the win calls for everything an individual has to be thrown into the chaotic oxygen-starved maze created by the strengths, weaknesses and decisions of everyone else in the field. There is power in no one ever really knowing for sure what you are bringing to the table.
 
Hocker ran 3:27.65 to win gold, 7th fastest all-time… closing his final 300 in 39 seconds.
 
You can call him a 3:27 guy, but what do you really know?
 
He’s a gold medalist.
 
🥇 Cole Hocker 3:27.65 🇺🇸
🥈 Josh Kerr 3:27.79 🇬🇧
🥉 Yared Nuguse 3:27.80 🇺🇸
4️⃣ Jakob Ingebrigtsen 3:28.24 🇳🇴
5️⃣ Hobbs Kessler 3:29.45 🇺🇸
 
👉 Josh Kerr broke Mo Farah’s British record, earning the silver. No doubt he will be back in Tokyo for a shot at the gold.
 
👉 Pointed out by friend of TRACKLND, Geoff Burns, the only men to beat Americans were the reigning World Champion and the reigning Olympic Champion. (They not like US!)
 
👉 All 3 medalists came up racing in the NCAA system and were NCAA champions.
Hocker – Oregon
Kerr – New Mexico
Nuguse – Notre Dame
 
👉 Kessler, who came in 5th is 1 year older than Cole Hocker was when he finished 6th in Tokyo. He will be 2 years older than Hocker is now in LA.
 
The 1500m is shaped by the champions of each era, with all other competitors having to react to their strengths. Reacting can take months or years to adapt as the results of training take time to take affect. The races of 2016, 2021 and 2024 looked very different. We’ll see how 2028 develops.