How the Ingebrigtsen-Kerr 1500m rivalry was pushed to new heights – even though neither man won

Before the men’s Olympic 1500 metres final, if you had offered Josh Kerr a British record time of three minutes 27 seconds and a guarantee that he would beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen, his eyes would have lit up. GO DEEPER Cole Hocker stuns the world to win men's 1500m gold If the post-Tokyo Games narrative saw the 1500m reduced to a conflict between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen, Tuesday night’s final proved there was another story to write. Fastest 1500m athletes, all-time Athlete Time Nationality Date Hicham El Guerrouj 3:26.00 Morocco July 1998 Bernard Lagat 3:26.34 Kenya/USA August 2001 Asbel Kiprop 3:26.69 Kenya July 2015 Jakob Ingebrigtsen 3:26.73 Norway July 2024 Noureddine Morceli 3:27.37 Algeria July 1995 Silas Kiplagat 3:27.64 Kenya July 2014 Cole Hocker 3:27.65 USA August 2024 Josh Kerr 3:27.79 Great Britain August 2024 Yared Nuguse 3:27.80 USA August 2024 Noah Ngeny 3:28.12 Kenya August 2000 The 1500m has seen eight different medallists at the last three World Championships, with Kerr the only athlete to medal in the Olympics in Tokyo and Paris, improving on his bronze from three years ago. Ingebrigtsen was clearly mindful of not playing to Kerr’s strengths with a sit-and-kick like the 2023 World Championships, which ended in a 3:29 after the first 800m was run in 1:54. Ingebrigtsen’s medal cabinet still dwarfs Kerr’s — this ended a run of 17 international competitions where the Norwegian had made a podium, going back to the 2019 World Championships.