It was one of the greatest Olympic 1500m finals in history. Perhaps even the greatest. And while Cole Hocker was a deserved champion for the USA, what really made it an all-time classic was that Britain’s Josh Kerr, the USA’s Yared Nuguse and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen all could have won if their tactics had been slightly different.
Ingebrigtsen went too fast early on. Nuguse let Hocker slip past him on the back straight, while Kerr was also a bit too wide when he struck for glory. In a race of such fine margins, pacing strategies and even the Stade de France track made all the difference in a race for the ages.
