Athletics

Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s achievements even more impressive given family infighting

Split from father and former coach, Gjert, must be taking some toll on the phenomenal 23-year-old athlete

Jakob Ingebrigtsen after winning the Men's 5000m final at the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Wire RESTRICTIONS: Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen after winning the Men's 5000m final at the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Wire RESTRICTIONS: Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial use without prior consent from rights holder.
Ian O'Riordan's picture
Ian O'Riordan
Sat Oct 14 2023 - 06:00

It’s tough sometimes being part of the world athletics family. Among the burden of media responsibilities is to vote for the male and female World Athlete of the Year.

The World Athletics Council also have an input, as can any member of the public who can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms – Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and of course X, formerly known as Twitter, where every like or retweet will count as one vote.

This three-way process – the World Athletics Council vote counting for 50 per cent of the result – has gone down well in recent years, even if the outright winners are inevitably decided at least in some part by their popularity as much their actual athletic achievements.

Last year’s award winners didn’t disappoint on either front, Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis and American 400m hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone both breaking world records along with winning World Championship titles.

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Duplantis is back in contention for a third men’s award in 2023, repeating that double feat, while McLaughlin-Levrone sat out most of this season because of injury.

For their awards, the European Athletics Association has already counted some of the voting, a four-way process which included the member federations. The outright winners there will be announced at the Golden Tracks ceremony in Vilnius, Lithuania next Saturday night.

Among the three finalists for the women’s Rising Star award is own our Rhasidat Adeleke.

The Rising Star award, introduced back in 2007, is open to all European athletes aged under-23 with Adeleke’s achievements this year accomplished while still only 20. Adeleke broke six Irish records, indoors and out, winning the NCAA outdoor title in 49.20, the fastest by any European woman in 2023, before finishing fourth at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, her first global final.

If successful next Saturday, Adeleke would become just the second Irish athlete to win one of the main awards at the Golden Tracks, after Sonia O’Sullivan was crowned women’s European Athlete of the Year in 1995.

Rhasidat Adeleke finishing fourth in the 400m at the World Championships in Budapest. She has enjoyed an exceptional season. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
Rhasidat Adeleke finishing fourth in the 400m at the World Championships in Budapest. She has enjoyed an exceptional season. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho

Earlier this week World Athletics announced their 11 nominations for the male and female Athlete of the Year, with voting now counting towards five finalists in each, to be announced next month. The outright winners are declared on December 11th.

Truth is there weren’t any tough decisions this year, at least not for me, my vote already gone to Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Faith Kipyegon.

Femke Bol certainly gave Kipyegon a run for her money, the Dutch sprinter a World champion in the 400m hurdles and 4x400m relay and also breaking the European Indoor 400m record with her 49.26, improving the 49.59 mark set by Jarmila Kratochvilova back in 1982.

Only there’s no denying Kipyegon had one of the greatest years in the history of women’s distance running, the 29-year-old Kenyan winning the 1,500-5,000m double in Budapest, after breaking world records in both those events, plus the mile.

Ingebrigtsen had one blemish on his year, the young Norwegian beaten into second place over 1,500m at the World Championships by Britain’s Josh Kerr (just like he was last year by Jake Wightman), before bouncing back to win the 5,000m (just like he did last year).

The Tokyo Olympic 1,500m champion, who only turned 23 last month, also won a European Indoor double over 1,500m-3,000m, ran a world two-mile best of 7:54.10 (breaking the mark set in 1997), a 2,000m world record of 4:43.13 (breaking the mark set in 1999), twice broke the European 1,500m record (running 3:27.95, after his 3:27.14), twice broke the European 3,000m record (running 7:23.63, after 7:24.00), and set a European mile record (3:43.73).

With all that he also won the Diamond League Final mile and 3,000m in Oregon, less than 24 hours apart.

Ingebrigtsen may not get many votes on the popularity front, often drawing some mild criticism for his finger-wagging showmanship during races, and often distant lack of humility afterwards.

“If some people can do something, I believe I can do it better,” Ingebrigtsen said in Oregon, when asked about his desire to break every world record from the 1,500m to the marathon. “That’s just my way of thinking and my way of staying motivated.”

All of this however has been accomplished after an unbearably tough year, in the words of his older brother Henrik, due to the increasingly bitter split from their father and former coach Gjert Ingebrigtsen.

On Friday, the 57-year-old was informed by the Norwegian Athletics Federation that his coaching accreditation for next year’s World Indoor Championships in Glasgow and European Championships in Rome would not be granted, and they’d be recommending the same for the Paris Olympics.

It was February of 2022 when Norway’s Stavanger Aftenblad newspaper first reported Ingebrigtsen was stepping down from his role as coach to his three sons – Henrik, Filip, and Jakob, all of whom he guided to European titles – due to medical reasons, although it later emerged this was due to a domestic dispute.

Last month, when Jakob married long-time fiancee Elisabeth Asserson at a ceremony in Drammen, their father Gjert was not present. That’s how bitter things have become.

According to the Norwegian Athletics Federation, the decision to deny the accreditation for next year was made to safeguard all athletes, something they didn’t consider possible “given the situation between Gjert and the Ingebrigtsen brothers”.

Gjert said the decision “came like a bombshell”, in part given he coaches Narve Nordas, the 25-year-old Norwegian who won bronze behind Jacob’s silver in Budapest.

After Jakob’s success in Tokyo, at age 21, the last season of Team Ingebrigtsen, the family reality show which had run since 2016, received its highest rating on Norwegian TV.

Gjert often spoke about his own belief that Jakob, the second youngest of his six sons, would become the best runner in the world: “And then there is Jakob. When he was around 11, he told me, ‘I want to be the best runner in the world’. He’d already worked it all out in his mind. And since that day, he’s never wavered.”

Henrik Ingebrigtsen, asked about the situation in August, said: “The thing is, the family conflict we’re in, there’s no way we can shine a light on it without just rasping up deep wounds.

“I don’t think anyone outside the family can understand the situation Jakob is in. He’s trying to perform in a situation that’s unbearable.”

All of which surely makes his athletic achievements even more impressive.

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