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SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — American Cole Hocker, who was born in Indianapolis and graduated from Cathedral High School, pulled off the upset of the Olympics on Tuesday night, beating his personal-best time by more than 3 seconds to outrace favorites Jakob Ingebrigsten of Norway and Josh Kerr of Great Britain for the title at 1,500 meters.
Hocker, 23, won the race in an Olympic record 3 minutes, 27.65 seconds, pulling from fifth to first over the final 300 meters to take down the two runners whose rivalry dominated the buildup to the much-anticipated race.
Hocker, listed as much as a 30-1 long shot in this race, beat Kerr by .14 seconds, while Ingebrigsten, who set the pace through the first 1250 meters, ended up in fourth behind American Yared Nuguse.
It was the first U.S. win in the metric mile since Matt Centrowitz took gold in 2016. This is the first time Americans put two men on the 1,500-meter podium since the Stockholm Games in 1912.
Cole was state champion in the IHSAA cross country championships for Cathedral in 2018 before claiming NCAA track championships at the University of Oregon.
All eyes for this one were trained on Ingebrigtsen, the defending champion out of Norway who came in with a point to prove.
He’d been beaten in the last two world championships, including last year by Kerr, the Scotsman who poked at Ingebrigtsen, saying Ingebrigsten only won races with pacers, the likes of which are not allowed at major races like this.
Ingebrigtsen darted to the front quickly in this and ran there for the first 3 1/2 laps, while Kerr traded between second and third, getting ready for his typical windup and a potential slingshot past Ingebrigtsen over the closing stretch, much the way he did last year.
While that was playing out, Hocker, at 5-foot-9-1/2 and more than 3-1/2 inches shorter than the top two contenders, almost looked like he was trying to photo bomb the end of this race.
He snuck up on the inside once, only to have Ingebrigtsen block that move, then tried again, passed them both and crossed the line first, his arms outstretched and with a look of disbelief on his face.
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Awesome feat and GO IRISH!
Hell of a race, even NBC was shocked and unprepared. Ha!
Hocker was raised in Lawrence Township and went to Fall Creek Valley Middle School too!
Grad of Cathedral
Fantastic performance – gutty. Glad for Cole.
A fantastic win for Cole, Cathedral High, Indianapolis and Team America. To have two runners on the podium for the first time in over 100 years is amazing.
Well done Cole!
He grew up two houses down and is a fellow Cathedral grad – great young man who comes from an even better family! Way to make your fellow Fighting Irish, Hoosiers and Americans proud, Cole!
Indy Proud!
He ran a terrific tactical race aided by his physical talent.
I think the only one who wanted that pace early on was the Norwegian. Turned out it wasn’t a 1400 meter race. Everyone else was forced to keep up. At the end it was the literal survival of the fittest.