EUGENE/OSLO (Dagbladet): Jakob Ingebrigtsen (21) has clear ambitions to win his first career WC gold, but will have to “settle” for WC silver in 1500 meters in Eugene on Wednesday night Norway time.

Even though Sandnes’ phenomenal running performance goes down in history books as a Norwegian sporting achievement, the 21-year-old is highly self-critical after winning the World Cup silver medal.

– I don’t get what I’m good at. I know I’m very good at running. “I think it’s a shame to be so good, but at the same time so bad,” Jakob Ingebrigtsen told Dagbladet.

– I followed the clock and saw that we had opened quite hard. Then I thought no one was stupid enough to attack from the outside. But that was it, and then I wasted too much effort to keep Jake Wightman behind me for the last 300 yards.

It was Timothy Cheruiyot who ran to the starting flank and pressed Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The 21-year-old from Sandnes believed that they were thus destroying each other, something Jake Wightman took advantage of.

– Everyone who is optimistic will save energy like Wightman, but there are some who will not. I don’t blame anyone, but I open the door for people to help each other destroy.

– it turns out

Right after the finish line, he was also very hard on himself.

– It’s really terrible. World Cup silver is a very big thing to achieve. At the same time, I was beaten by runners who were worse than me, Jakob Ingebrigtsen told NRK.

– I made some mistakes. I defended my place too much for me to win the sprint. I turned out. I don’t have the strength to answer what Wightman brought up. He won and I lost. I should have done it differently. Not what I wanted, said the 21-year-old.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is even more merciless with himself after finishing 4th on the same distance in Doha in 2019, but even a World Cup silver medal was not enough to satisfy the ambitious 21-year-old who became Olympic 1500 meters champion in Tokyo last year. .

Touch on

It was Abel Kipsang who came forward from the start and increased the pace on the court. Jakob Ingebrigtsen took the lead after 650 yards. Timothy Cheruiyot then ran over to the Norwegian’s side. The fighting roosters were almost side by side before the final round, but with strong sprinters Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman very close behind.

It took advantage of the speed of Wightman, who passed Jakob before the race. There, Norway’s hopes were unable to resist. Wightman became world champion. Jakob Ingebrigtsen had to settle for WC silver.

Be careful

That’s one level above the Ingebrigsen family’s record at the World Championships in Athletics, namely Filip Ingebrigtsen’s World Championship bronze at the same distance in London in 2017.

– Silver in the WC is a poor achievement, Henrik Ingebrigtsen’s brother told NRK, but added:

– Jakob took a big risk by running like that and came out on top, but it will be stronger to take gold that way. It’s a very difficult way to run, says Henrik.

Experienced athletic journalist Jonathan Gault warns against the tactic in analytics for athletic websites Let’s runas mentioned in Dagbladet before the final WC at 1500 meters:

Watch out for the last trap

Don’t agree

However, Jakob Ingebrigtsen himself denied taking too many risks in the WC final.

– No, the main fault is probably that I didn’t push enough all the way. It goes relatively fast, but is slow enough for people to attack. This is the biggest mistake, the 21-year-old told NRK.

He became an Olympic champion in the 1,500 meters in Tokyo last year and also won two European Championship gold medals, in the 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters, in Berlin as a 17-year-old.