The race was billed as a bar brawl between the two baddest 1,500m runners in the world. Nobody figured a little-known American would sneak up on both of them, steal the show and take the Olympic gold medal with him.
Cole Hocker on Tuesday night threw a jolt into track, first catching up to, then slipping his way past fierce rivals Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr to pull the upset of the Games with an unexpected victory in a much-hyped showdown that was not supposed to involve him.
Hocker bettered his personal best by nearly 3 seconds to win in an Olympic-record 3 minutes, 27.65 seconds.
Photo: Reuters
“If you’ve been following my season, you knew I was capable of it, but still, things had to go my way today,” Hocker said.
Taking advantage of a blistering early pace set by Ingebrigtsen, the 23-year-old product of University of Oregon pulled from fifth, to third, then finally to first, over the final 300m to pass the gassed-out favorites.
This was supposed to be all about a chance for defending Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen and reigning world champion Kerr to finally settle a feud that has been brewing for more than a year.
Photo: Reuters
Kerr said the race would be “one of the most vicious and hardest 1,500s the sport’s seen in a very long time.”
Instead, the guy taking home the US$50,000 winner’s check was an up-and-comer who was listed as much as a 30-1 long-shot. Kerr finished second by 0.14 seconds. The US’ Yared Nuguse was third, and Ingebrigtsen faded to fourth.
“It was a deafening noise. I’ve never heard that in a stadium before,” Hocker said of the 80,000 screaming supporters in the Stade de France. “I kind of lost feeling in my body and it didn’t feel like the Olympics anymore until it did.”
About an hour after that surprise came a US victory most people saw coming when Gabby Thomas powered through the curve to win the 200m title in 21.83 seconds.
Thomas held off the newly crowned 100m champion Julien Alfred of St Lucia, who won silver.
She became the first American woman to take an Olympic short sprint title since her childhood idol Allyson Felix won the 200m at the 2012 London Games.
“I’m really in disbelief because having an Olympic gold medal is something in my wildest dreams, but at the same time I know how hard I’ve fought for it,” Thomas said.
HISTORY MAKER
Meanwhile, Cuban wrestler Mijain Lopez made Olympic history when he became the first athlete to win five consecutive individual gold medals in the same event.
Lopez, who turns 42 in two weeks’ time, defeated Chile’s Yasmani Acosta in the final of the 130kg Greco-Roman final.
With his victory, Lopez broke a tie for four successive individual Olympic golds he shared with Carl Lewis (long jump), Michael Phelps (200m medley), Katie Ledecky (800m freestyle), Al Oerter (discus), Paul Elvstrom (sailing) and Kaori Icho (wrestling).
KEY EVENTS
In the basketball quarter-finals, LeBron James and his US teammates eased past Brazil, winning 122-87 with Devin Booker top-scoring with 18 points and Anthony Edwards adding 17 points.
They face Serbia next who fought back from 24 points down to edge Australia 95-90 in a remarkable win in overtime thanks mainly to three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Nikola Jokic’s late efforts.
France face Germany in the other semi-final.
At the velodrome, Dutch powerhouse Harrie Lavreysen led his country to the men’s team sprint cycling gold medal in a new world record time to successfully defend their title.
In other developments, the decision of organizers to cancel a “familiarization session” for marathon swimmers on Tuesday raised questions as to why triathletes were allowed to swim in the Seine the previous day.
Organizers on Tuesday said they were “very confident” that the women’s and men’s 10km swimming events would take place in the river this week as scheduled.
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