Cole Hocker steals the show in the men’s 1500m at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games

© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated

Going into the men’s 1500-metre final at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, all the talk in the media and social media was of the verbal jousting between Great Britain’s Josh Kerr and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen. While American Cole Hocker is considered a strong finalist, he did not enter the conversation about a medal until 1425m into the 1500m race.

A shocker from Cole Hocker 😳💥

Cole Hocker made a statement with his win in the men’s 1500 with his Olympic record of 3:27.65 🇺🇸#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/1jMyFDBQtj

— USATF (@usatf) August 6, 2024

Josh Kerr started the race in the lead, shortly after Ingebrigtsen ran to the front, 1.5 laps later, Ingebrigtsen with Kenya’s Timothy Cheryiot on his should and Kerr sitting in third turned up the pace. Then it was the Norwegian, followed by Cheruiyot and fellow Kenyan Brian Komen. Over the final 200m, Kerr caught up to Ingbrigtsen and moving from mid-pack to third was Cole Hocker on the inside. While the others were looking at each other, Hocker snuck up on the inside and dropped the field for his first-ever global championships win.

Ingebrigtsen went too hard leading and suffered a shocking fate: no medal. It was Jared Nuguse of the US virtually tying Kerr at the line. Kerr is credited with the silver, Nuguse with bronze. Prognosticators likely had zero medals for the US in this event, but they earned two of three.

For Hocker, he broke the Olympic record running 3:27.65.Ker finished in 3:27.79 and Nuguse 3:27.80. The Kenyans finished 10 and 11th, the last two finishers of the race.

Kerr set a new British record with his run. Also setting a national record was Niels Laros from The Netherlands in 3:29.54. Pietro Arese set an Italian national record with his 3:30.74

Video of the race

Results