‘Race for the ages’ was written, packed with stars. Cole Hocker ripped up the script

The storylines swirled within the Stade de France as the 1500-metre runners were introduced, one by one emerging into the yawning maw of the arena, and onto the purple track.

There was the mouth-watering match up between cocksure Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, and his great rival Josh Kerr, the Scotsman with whom he has traded barbs for years. There was Timothy Cheruiyot, the Kenyan, formerly untouchable over this distance. And there was the USA’s national champion and next great hope, Yared Nuguse. All would be worthy winners.

No one remembered to tell Cole Hocker. The 23-year-old American was a 21-1 shot coming into the event that world athletics boss Sebastian Coe had dubbed a “race for the ages”.

We’ll get to Hocker soon, but he was barely a subplot at the start, given the great drama created by the race favourite – the brash reality TV star from Norway who wears sticker tattoos, runs hard, and runs his mouth, too. Missing the medals and finishing fourth will be difficult for Ingebrigtsen to swallow.

But the 1500 is a tactical race as much as a physical one, and he blundered, going out too fast, leading with a 54-second lap, followed by another one at almost the same speed. Out front, going too fast, for too long, he ran out of steam.

Cole Hocker shocks the Paris crowd, and perhaps himself, crossing for gold in the men’s 1500 metres final.Credit: AP

In the mixed zone, Ingebrigtsen fielded a single English question from the reporting scrum. “Do you regret your tactic?” He answered: “No, and yes.”

“That wasn’t the plan at all,” he added later. “I ruined it for myself by going way too hard.”

For silver medallist Kerr, the man with whom he’s traded snipes and snark since Tokyo – and who beat Ingebrigtsen the last time they raced on a world stage – it was no time to rehash their beef.

“My ears are gone, my legs are gone. I’m proud of the performance I put out there today,” Kerr said. “I said to myself I’ll control my controllables. I did that today. I executed the fastest [race] that I’ve ever run by almost two seconds.”

Brash Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen (left) admitted he went out too hard before finishing out of the medals.Credit: AP

The smiling Nuguse won bronze behind them, after sticking to his strategy to “just roll with it, whatever happens” – knowing he would be strong enough to pull through. “It’s like the exact kind of race I wanted – a really fast race where you can go all out and not be impeded by anything,” he said. “Just like a crazy race for the finish. That’s exactly what I got today.”

And Hocker? The boy from Indiana had his eyes on this all along.

“Winning gold was my goal this entire year,” he said. “I wrote that down and I repeated it to myself even if I didn’t believe it.”

There was good reason not to believe it. For one thing, it took breaking an Olympic record to deliver gold.

Hocker didn’t win with a last-minute kick in a sluggish race, as the last American winner of this event did in 2016 – in Rio de Janeiro, Matt Centrowitz won the slowest Olympic 1500 metres since 1932. Hocker ran each of his last six 100-metre blocks faster than the last. He wasn’t kicking – he was winding up. Maybe he knew all along.

United States gold medallist Cole Hocker had faith in his ability when few others did.Credit: AP

“My performances showed me that I was capable of running [3 minutes, 27 seconds], whatever it took,” he said. “I knew I was a medal contender, and I knew that if I get it right, it would be a gold medal. I’ve been saying that.”

The media attention on Ingebrigtsen, in a way, was a blessing. It let Hocker cruise into this race under the radar, unsuspected and unseen, reflected on the final turn when he snuck along the inside rail to take the lead.

He thanked the stadium for carrying him, and God, too, and his body and mind, as dozens of journalists crowded around him and his medal. One of them stood unashamedly beaming.

David Woods of The Indianapolis Star has covered Hocker since high school. Woods had his gold medal story pre-written, in an act of faith, or an attempt to manifest a miracle. The headline: SHOCKER!

“He might not be the most elegant runner, but he has tremendous speed,” Woods said. “I call him the Barry Sanders of 1500 metre running, because he can dart to daylight. Which is what he did tonight.”

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