Monumental surprise in the final of 1,500 in the Budapest World Cups with the defeat of the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen at the hands of the British Josh Kerr in a repeat of what happened last year against another representative from the same island as Jake Wightman. For his part, the Spanish Mario García Romo paid for going perhaps too far back in a race under 3:30 to end up climbing to a creditable sixth place, two places below his position in 2022.
The challenge was daunting, but The man from Salamanca already demonstrated last year with his fourth place in Eugene that he is not afraid of any rival nor is he scared of big competitions since his great victory last year in the Spanish Championship when he was not the favourite.
And that the list of rivals was to shake, with a Jakob Ingebrigtsen in search of his first universal title either outdoors or indoors after falling last year against Jake Wightman in Eugene and against Tefera in Belgrade under ceiling. There was also his training partner in Colorado, the American Yared Nuguse. And the Kenyan Abel Kipsang or the British Josh Kerr and Neil Gourley.
Two ‘Yankee’ friends against the Norwegian troll
On the horizon, the six medals achieved by Spain in the history of the World Cups in the fetish test par excellence among those on the track. José Luis González opened the season in Rome ’87 with a historic silver after the Somali Abdi Bile, Fermín Cacho achieved two silver (1993 behind the Algerian Noureddine Morcelli and in 1997 surpassed by the Moroccan genius Hicham El Guerrouj), Reyes Estévez two bronzes (1997 and 1999) and Mohamed Katir bronze last year in Oregon.
Mario Garcia Romo he had assured that he would prefer a fast race and the presence of Ingebrigtsen ensured an almost hellish rhythm in his desire to punish his rivals to avoid scares like the one mentioned by Eugene. In short, with a National Athletics Center almost full and with a much less suffocating heat than at noon, the die was cast. Three and a half minutes ahead for the dream of Villar de Gallimazo, a town of just 200 inhabitants.
The final met expectations, with Kipsang pulling hard in the first 400 (56.03) until the youngest of the Ingebrigtsen took over to go through the 800 first (1:54.19) and at the last ringing of the bell (2:35.89).
Behind, It was difficult for Mario García Romo and he gave up too many meters that would then cost too much to recover. In any case, she was in the race while ahead the memory of Eugene began to float in the environment. As brave as he was intelligent, Kerr seemed to have studied his compatriot Wightman’s victory to perfection and repeated his performance step by step.
In the last corner, the man from Salamanca was ninth while the Norwegian began to see the shadow of a possible defeat. Again in a World Cup for the third time. So it was. Imperial, Josh Kerr took the lead in 3:39.28, followed by Ingebrigtsen (3:29.65) and his unfriended compatriot Narve Gilje Nordas (3:29.68).while the man from Salamanca finished sixth with 3:30.26 and equaled Fátima Diamé in length to achieve the best Spanish position to date in the stadium.
And now that? Well, Jakob Ingebrigtsen will return to the tartan this Thursday to contest the 5,000 meter series with the Spanish Mohamed Katyir and Oumaiz as teammates. Sometimes they like to see the Scandinavian lose because of how arrogant he is. And in athletics those behaviors are not valid.
2023-08-23 19:40:45
#Athletics #World #Cup #Kerr #extends #Ingebrigtsens #curse #Mario #finishes #sixth
