Family quarrel reaches Budapest
Insane déjà vu brings Ingebrigtsen to the World Cup gold
By Torben Siemer, Budapest
08/24/2023 06:28 am
Jakob Ingebrigtsen is still missing the world title over 1500 meters. After the bitter defeat in last year’s final, the running superstar also had to admit defeat in Budapest. The parallels range from impressive to absurd.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen looked helplessly at the dark evening sky over Budapest. Again the Norwegian was the clear favorite in the World Cup final over 1500 meters. Again, the European record holder took the lead early in the race and set a high pace, just like last year in the final of the World Championships in Eugene. To go into the decisive phase as the leader, to be in control of the racing action. To finally win his long-awaited first World Championship gold over this prestigious route. But what was supposed to be a triumphant victory ended in an almost unbelievable déjà vu.
“The final moments of this race will be burned into my brain for a long time,” said Josh Kerr, who surprisingly stormed the finish line in first place after 3:29.38 minutes. A performance that brought him the “absolute recognition” of the beaten Ingebrigtsen. He secured second place in 3:29.65 minutes, just ahead of his Norwegian teammate Narve Gilje Nordas (3:29.68). Apparently he has a very tense “non-relationship” with him, but more on that later.
First to the remarkable déjà vu: Like twelve months ago, the supposedly unbeatable Ingebrigtsen had to let a British middle stretcher pass in the last 200 meters of the World Cup final. Jake Wightman then, Kerr this time – who not only both wear for the same national shirt, but also run for the same Scottish club. Journalist Jonathan Gault tweeted a picture of the two from their youth. “It’s crazy,” said Kerr after his sensational victory, “that the Edinburgh Athletics Club are the world champions twice in a row.” He could also have called it absurd, insane, spectacular, insane or simply unbelievable – all those words would have been absolutely correct.
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After all, Ingebrigtsen not only won all of his 1500 meter races this season, but also improved his own European record twice. The still only 22-year-old was only the sixth runner in the history of athletics to finish under 3:28.00 minutes, twice: in June in Oslo (3:27.95) and in July in Chorzow, Poland ( 3:27,14). And yet he was back at the finish line of a World Cup final and had to watch a British outsider celebrate a completely unlikely gold. Although, and that’s also part of the truth, Kerr himself apparently believed in his chance from the start.
“Josh told me on the bus,” the British sprinter tweeted Adam Gemili, “that he wins if he is still close to Ingebrigtsen with 200 meters to go.” Kerr sat behind Ingebrigtsen early on. Was second in the slipstream of the favourite. Then, almost to the point, 200 meters from the finish line, he pushed himself to the outside at his height and attacked on the home stretch with everything his body still had to offer. Ingebrigtsen was able to hold against it for a long time, but could no longer counterattack. “I knew 50 meters from the goal that I cracked it,” said Kerr. “In the last 30 meters I thought that I wanted this so much that I didn’t care how much it hurts right now – I wanted just give everything to be the first to arrive.”
Ingebrigtsen, who in the final spurt of the semifinals had encouraged the audience to cheer with a gesture somewhere between excessive self-confidence and unsportsmanlike arrogance, was meanwhile looking for explanations. “I tried to give 100 percent, but that’s difficult when you don’t feel 100 percent.”
He spoke of a “dry throat” that had already made itself felt in the semi-finals and “has gotten worse over the last two days”. It was “slightly better” on the morning of the final day, but it was still annoying on the warm-up area. On Norwegian television, however, Ingebrigtsen apparently did not want to use that as an excuse: “I had hoped that it would be enough, but it wasn’t enough.”
Quarrels in the Ingebrigtsen family
So instead of fighting for gold in the final meters, Ingebrigtsen almost lost silver as well. His teammate Narve Gilje Nordas came closer and was only 0.03 seconds behind. A few meters and he would have passed. Two medals for Norway, that sounds like a reason to be happy together – the Images from the target area but only show a chilled handshake with plenty of safety distance.
The trigger is, it reports Swiss “Tagesanzeiger”.“, a posse around Gjert Ingebrigtsen. He made his sons Henrik, Filip and Jakob all European champions over 1500 meters, trained them for many years. “Last year, however, he fell out of favor with them, one can only speculate about the reason It says in the “Tagesanzeiger” that apparently none of those involved want to talk about it publicly.
What is certain, however, is that Gjert Ingebrigtsen is now in charge of Narve Gilje Nordas instead. Because father Ingebrigtsen did not receive accreditation from the Norwegian association for the competitions in Budapest, Nordas even left the team hotel and moved into his coach’s accommodation. The “Tagesanzeiger” quotes the freshly crowned third in the World Cup as saying “the relationship with Jakob is non-existent anyway”.
Which should at least explain why Nordas commented on his bronze medal, among other things: “I hope that I’ll be even better prepared for the Olympic Games in Paris and can then grab it.” Maybe he should think about a move to Scotland: to the Ingebrigtsen conquerors from Edinburgh Athletics Club.