•Kenya will also be banking on Abel Kipsang for a podium finish. Kipsang, 25, placed fourth in the event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
•However, all eyes will be on Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen who has very nearly done it all.
Image: REUTERS
The 2020 Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot has his sights set on gold as he leads the Kenyan onslaught in the men's 1500m semis at the Oregon22 in Eugene today.
Cheruiyot will hope for a repeat of his performance at the 2019 World championship in Doha, where he bagged gold. It was a giant leap from the preceding event in 2017, where he won silver in London.
The Kenyan heads into today's race high on experience after earning bronze behind Ethiopian Tefera and Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Belgrade. He finished fourth behind the Norwegian over a mile in Eugene in May.
Cheruiyot has yet to recover his best form but the Olympic silver medallist finished third over a mile in Eugene and he has the championship pedigree to navigate the rounds and again contend for a medal.
Kenya will also be banking on Abel Kipsang for a podium finish. Kipsang, 25, placed fourth in the event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won the bronze medal at the 2022 World Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
His season’s best of 3:31.01 was run at altitude in Nairobi in May, and at the Kenyan Trials last month he took victory over world champion Timothy Cheruiyot in 3:34.55.
However, all eyes will be on Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen who has very nearly done it all.
Ingebrigtsen, 21, has won European titles, Olympic gold medal, and earlier this year, he became the fastest indoor 1500m runner of all time, clocking 3:30.60 in Lievin.
However, Ingebrigtsen is yet to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships. But it will come as a huge shock if he doesn’t fill that void when the men’s 1500m final takes place on July 19.
Ingebrigtsen said he will “for sure” double over 1500m and 5000m in Eugene and his favourite event is up first, where he will seek to avenge his defeat at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade earlier this year.
Ingebrigtsen was the overwhelming favourite for that 1500m title but in the end, he had no response to the final surge from Ethiopia’s Samuel Tefera, who took gold in 3:32.77.
Britain’s Jake Wightman is also a force to reckon with following an impressive victory in Rabat last month in 3:32.62 before he outkicked rivals Neil Gourley and Josh Kerr to win the British 1500m title.
Kerr, the Olympic bronze medallist, clocked a blazing 3:48.87 mile indoors in Boston but he has yet to truly fire so far in the outdoor season, his best of 3:35.92 coming in Birmingham back in May.
Tefera will lead the Ethiopian challenge and the two-time world indoor champion will be looking to win his first global outdoor medal.
Australia’s Ollie Hoare has enjoyed a breakthrough year and he finished second to Ingebrigtsen in Oslo in an Oceanian mile record of 3:47.48. He finished fifth in the world indoor final in Belgrade, and 11th in the Olympic final in Tokyo, and he looks capable of contending for his first global medal in Oregon.
The US challenge will be led by Cooper Teare, the 22-year-old University of Oregon star who unleashed a big kick to take the US 1500m title in Eugene last month. He ran a 3:50.17 mile indoors this year and clocked 3:51.70 for the mile to finish sixth behind Ingebrigtsen in Eugene in May.