Ingebrilliant. Ingecredible, Ingesane. We’ve been running out of the superlatives for a while now, only this performance by Jakob Ingebrigtsen is well deserving of another go.
Because in defending his World Championship 5000m title on a suitably climactic night in Budapest, the young Norwegian had to call on all his distance running reserves and experience.
After a tense and nervous 12½ laps, the field at times bunched as tightly as bananas before being strung out like beads on a string, Ingebrigtsen only hit the front in the last five metres, out-kicking Spain’s Mohamed Katir in the final mad dash for the line.
With that Ingebrigtsen collapsed on to the track, the perfect emotional mix of relief and elation, before rising again to acknowledge the blinding flashes of the fenykepezogeps (that’s cameras in Hungarian).
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For Ingebrigtsen, complaining of a head cold on Wednesday night after Britain’s Josh Kerr stunned him and everyone else watching to take the 1,500m gold medal in 3:29.38 (with a 52.77 last lap), this was a tactical masterclass of his own.
Still a month shy of turning 23, Ingebrigtsen already has a bag of championship medals, 17 across the senior stage, only this latest gold medal, given the circumstances, was one he unquestionably craved.
His winning time of 13:11.30 left him just 0.14 in front of Katir, last year’s silver medal winner Jacob Krop of Kenya third in 13:12.28, beating Guatemala’s Luis Grijalva by 0.22, leaving him fourth again. While falling short of the distance-double Faith Kipyegon from Kenya did manage on the women’s side on Saturday night (adding the 5000m to her 1500m), Ingebrigtsen was met with a similar standing ovation of approval.
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The women’s 4x400m relay showdown came pretty close, Femke Bol of the Netherlands running a scintillating anchor leg to gun down Jamaica and Great Britain on the homestretch, winning in 3:20.72, to Jamaica’s 3:20.88.
For Bol, who also won gold in the 400m hurdles, this made perfect amends for her unfortunate stumble in the same homestretch on the anchor leg of the mixed 4x400m relay, the gold medal there just inches away.
The Irish quartet of Sophie Becker, Róisín Harrison, Kelly McGrory, and Sharlene Mawdsley, who made the final against all odds, finished eighth of the nine-team final, their time of 3:27.08 just off the 3:26.18 they ran to qualify on Saturday night.
Mawdsley, running her sixth race of the championships after also running the individual and mixed 4x400m, moved them from last into eighth on the last leg, taking down the French woman Camille Séri.
“A bit tired in the legs today, it was a late night, last night,” Becker said. “But honestly, once you get on to the track, I got goosebumps, just the energy from the crowd.”
In the men’s 4x400m, the sheer delight of champions USA was matched by silver medal winners France, their first medal of any colour in Budapest, less than a year out from the Paris Olympics. Rarely has relief been celebrated so widely either.
For Athing Mu of the US, the defending World Champion and Olympic champion in the 800m, any indecision about racing in Budapest appeared moot in the qualifying rounds, only the 21-year-old had to settle for bronze, Kenya’s Mary Moraa taking the win in a brilliant personal best of 1:56.03.
Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, also just 21, was rewarded with another silver medal (1:56.34), for a third successive time on the global stage, Mu third in 1:56.61.
“It was the race I was looking forward to it all year, really felt up for it,” Hodgkinson said. “Going up against two girls like, and the rest of the field, it was a very, very tough final.
“Mary came out on top today, she’s a great athlete, so is Athing, so happy to be up there among them. It’s just who feels best on the day, and today that was Mary. It’s going to be a battle for the next 10 years, so plenty of chances, win some, draw some, but happy to be part of it.”
Former Kenyan Winfred Yavi, the 23-year-old representing Bahrain since age 15, won the women’s 3,000m steeplechase in 8:54.29 ahead of two Kenyans, Beatrice Chepkoech and Faith Cherotich.
Neeraj Chopra, the biggest sports stars in India, won his first World Championship gold in the javelin. Second in Oregon last year, the 25-year-old Olympic champion won with a best throw of 88.17; Germany’s Julian Weber took fourth in 85.79m, meaning Germany failed to secure a medal of any colour in Budapest.
