Cole Hocker is officially the #1 distance runner in the world right now

✅

Simply pathetic.

🤣🤡 Now a marathoner is "ducking" by racing Chicago and London. 🤣🤡

You seem to remember that as a veteran half marathoner (having raced the distance every year since 2019), he still ran within 3s of the winner in the 2024 Olympic 10,000. (Kicked down at the bell, as expected for a guy focused on longer races and not the track.)

And then, because he is no longer a track runner, he then spent his 18 months doing ... this:

- 1. 58:09 HM, 6 weeks after the Paris 2024 10,000 - 9/24
- 2. 26:32 road 10k -12/24)
- 3. 56:42 HM - 3/25
- 4. London marathon 2nd (2:03 debut) - 4/25
- 5. Buenas Aires HM champion (58:29) - 8/25
- 6. Chicago Marathon champion (2:02:23) - 10/25
- 7. XC World Champion (three-peating) - 1/26

Every. single. race. he has run has been excellent, globally elite, world-beating.

So much more impressive than (1) a single WC gold, (2) a slow indoor two-mile win at Millrose, an absolute boatload of losses, and no other impressive victories to speak of.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA You made excuses for why Kiplimo couldn't even win a medal in Paris!

Some win Olympic Gold (Hocker).

This. If people want to say it's all about the latest championship, then it's Gressier over Hocker.

Based on the last season's WC, Hocker isn't even the best distance runner on the track.

Gressier 10,000 gold + 5,000 bronze >>> Hocker 5,000 gold + 1500 DQ

Reaching back to races 18 months ago is irrelevant to the 'right now' thread title. (If we are talking about total historic medals, bring in 2023-2024 and Jakob has everyone beat with 2x Gold + 1x Silver.)

Based on 2025, Wanyonyi is the best middle distance runner on the track, bar none.
- The world's dominant 800 specialist, who is 1-0 against Hocker in the 1500. 2025 WC Gold, undefeated on the Diamond League ever (incl 4 races in 2025). Conversation over.

Based on 2025, Gressier is the best distance runner on the track.
- 10,000 Gold + 5,000 Bronze beats everyone.

Yes, Kiplimo has ducked the best competition on the track since Paris. He knew he wasn't good enough to ever win gold on the track, so he retreated to the lower level competition on the roads. Much easier to win in Chicago than in Tokyo.

#1 right now = best current titles + best current form = Hocker

1. 2026 openers: World XC vs Hokie Invitational. 🤣

2. "Continued winning since then" is simply false.🤣 Hocker has lost every single 1500/mile he has run since Aug 2024, as well as Diamond League and domestic 3000/5000 races. Many more losses than wins.

3. Time trials...like World XC? 🤡

4. Titles in the past year:

Chicago Marathon + World XC champ >>> WC 5,000 + Hokie Invite

Olympic Champ + World Champ + Millrose >>> World XC Champ and Chicago Marathon

Laughable.

Every single African distance runner will move to the marathon if they have the ability, because that's. where. the. money. is.

The track 10,000 is MUCH weaker than the marathon majors.

This isn't the 90s/00s with Geb, Tergat and Kenny chasing times on the circuit all summer. The influx of paydays for road racing changed it all, and the marathon is everything. (Have you noticed that non-African runners started to fare better in the track 5,000/10,000 over the past 15 years? Ever wonder why? Think a bit.)

We don't have to hypothesize -- in the middle of prepping for the London Marathon, Kiplimo took on the WC 10,000 champion (and everyone behind him) in a man-to-man race, and torched all of them.

The reality doesn't match your narrative. Kiplimo would have started his career as a marathoner if what you're saying is true. Instead, he only switched to the marathon AFTER he failed in multiple attempts to win gold on the track.

Kiplimo couldn't hang with the big dogs on the track, so he retreated to the roads with his tail between his legs.

Kiplimo after getting crushed in Paris:

Open image

HAHAHAHA great post -- except that the World Marathon Major$ are the pinnacle for the world's best distance runners, while the watered-down track 10,000 is the NAIA.

Pop quiz: How many track 10,000s did Kipchoge run? FIVE. How many marathons? TWENTY-ONE. It's pretty obvious where the world's best put their talents.

Even as a runner from the past generation, after Kipchoge raced championship 5000s 2003-2008 he went straight to the marathon. As a 5,000 WC winner and 4-time global medalist who went on to hold the HM WR and dominate the marathon, of course he could have run a least as well in the 10,000 as he did in the 5,000. Gosh, one wonder$ why he went straight to the marathon!

"Ducking competition" by pursuing and winning actual money at the World Marathon Majors. 🤣🤣🤣

Between his HM winning$, debuting in 2nd at London and winning Chicago in 2025, Kiplimo certainly does not care about Gressier winning the B-league of distance running last summer.

Exactly.

Sure, Hocker is in the mix for best 5,000 runner with a strong claim given his 2025 WC win, of course. Less so for the 1500 based on his poor showing in 2025, though people are still clinging to a one-time breakthrough in 2024.

Meanwhile, for best distance runner on the track, Gressier has a better 2025 WC tally than Hocker.

So he's not exactly on top of the world in his discipline.

Kiplimo is.

Hahaha and yet you need to repeatedly reference a fluke win from 2024?

You're so illogical. If the track 10,000 competition was weaker, then why couldn't Kiplimo win gold on the track?

Kiplimo retreated to the roads and immediately did better on the roads than he could on the track. That tells you the competition on the roads is weaker.

Only the very best can win gold on the track, and do it two years in a row.

🤣

Well, apparently not. The Chicago winner literally just met the Tokyo WC 10,000 winner, in a 10k race.

After Chicago, in in the middle of prepping for the London Marathon, Kiplimo took on the Tokyo WC 10,000 champion in a man-to-man race, and torched him (and all comers).

XC is where the the road studs meet the track studs, and Kiplimo -- racing a quarter of his focus distance -- made it clear who is on top. Kiplimo obliterated your precious track guys in a 10k race.

With good African distance runners now preferentially pursuing the roads over the track, but still racing XC, XC proves over and over that the track 10,000 is the B-league of distance running.

If a Gressier or Fisher level athlete were East African, they would have moved to the road$ long ago and would be getting stomped by Kiplimo, Sawe, Korir, Ebenyo, etc.

Pretty dumb question there. But sure, I can educate you.

Kiplimo never really had a track career separate from his time succeeding as a road runner.

He first ran on the roads at least as far back as 2015 (listed at 15 y.o., DOB Nov 2000), he raced the roads as well as track/XC 2016-2019, and early in his career ran 57:37 in 2020 (listed as 20 y.o. -- the age doesn't really matter; the point it was early in his running).

In fall 2019 he had great success on the roads winning major races in the 10k, 15k and HM distances. (The same year he had placed 2nd to Cheptegei in his first senior World XC race.)

He was very fast on the track (12:40 and 26:33), but his bread and butter has been the road and in particular HM for a long time. Road paydays are absolutely massive compared with the track. Any African runner with the ability will chase the available money as soon as possible. This is old news.

If Kiplimo was in the position of Fisher (USA), Gressier (FRA) or Ahmed (CAN), could he have chased a faster 5000 or trained specifically for a fast last-lap championship 10,000 -- instead of 57-minute half marathon and winning every road race in sight? Probably. But I doubt he cares (nor does his agent).

Meanwhile, what "tells me" you're wrong about track vs roads is that as a road runner Kiplimo simply devasted that the reigning world 10,000 champion over 10k.

Wait, I thought we were talking about "right now" ... 2024 is old news .... Hocker's terrible 2025 in the 1500/mile proves that what happened two summers ago doesn't mean much.

Let me complete the sentence for you. Now that World XC has been moved to early January when track athletes are in their off-season, it has lost its prestige because it is now merely a place where road studs meet track studs who aren't in racing shape.

Nonsense. Kiplimo just won in XC while focusing on the roads, so why can't he win on the track? It's because the track studs weren't in top form in Tallahassee, but they sure were in Tokyo. Kiplimo stayed away from Tokyo because he was too scared. Easier to take the win against lesser competition in Chicago.