For the past 12 months, the track and field world has been hyping up the eagerly anticipated showdown between Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen and on Sunday, Kerr sounded like Don King in his prime when asked what people should expect when the reigning world and Olympic champion square off in Paris on Tuesday night.
“They should be expecting one of the most vicious and hardest 1500 metres this sport has seen for a very long time,” Kerr said. “I am ready to go after it. I think we all are. There has been a lot of talk and words over the last 12 months, even two years. I am looking to settle that on Tuesday and give it my best performance. I will show that in the final.”
The quirks of the 1500m semi-final draw meant that the two men were also in the same race on Sunday, with Ingebrigtsen going to the front after 400m with Kerr following just behind him. But for the last 20m of the race the two were eyeballing each other as Ingebrigtsen took the win in 3min 32.38sec, with Kerr 0.08sec back. Now Kerr insists he is ready. “I have been picturing this for my whole life,” he said.
Meanwhile, rarely has a woman cruised into an Olympic 800m final as effortlessly as Keely Hodgkinson, who showed again why she is a prohibitive favourite for gold on Monday evening. The 22-year-old from Wigan was running well within herself as she led from the front to win in 1min 56.86sec. There are whispers in the camp that she is in high 1:53 shape. If that is the case, no one will stop her in Paris.
Afterwards she was nervous – but confident – about what lay ahead. “I’ve been thinking about it every day for the past year,” she said. “I’ve felt nervous the whole time. The heats, I was nervous. Tonight I was nervous. Tomorrow is going to be the most fun. There’s no pressure. I’m already there. I’ll give my absolute everything and whatever comes of that comes.”
There was no place in the Olympic final, however, for the 17-year-old Phoebe Gill or Jemma Reekie, who finished fourth and fifth in their respective semi-finals. Gill has had a tremendous season, and ran creditably as she came home in 1:58.47 behind Kenya’s world champion Mary Moraa, who won in 1:57.86.
Reekie looked to have every chance in her semi-final and was second coming off the final bend before fading to fifth behind Tsige Duguma, who won in 1:57.47.
Earlier Matt Hudson-Smith qualified for the 400m semi-finals by winning his heat in 44.78 and Charlie Dobson also pronounced himself satisfied after going through to the semi-finals in 44.96.
