Hocker finished 9th in 3:32 but….

Cole clearly has a lot of work to do to get a global medal, but he has every reason to believe in himself. His PRs and accomplishments are fairly similar to Kerr and Wightman when they were the same age. Here’s hoping he and Nuguse continue their upward trajectory.

Well, Hocker has not made back to back world finals…

This really just comes down to how you define “presence at the world level”. I’m of the opinion that placing 6th at the Olympics and 7th at Worlds within 3 years qualifies as having “some sort of presence at the world level”. You’d have to be ridiculously stringent to claim otherwise.

His World Athletics page has “1 x Top 8 at Olympic Games” and “1 x Top 8 at World Championships” under the honors tab. That’s a presence at the world level.

I don't think it's worth comparing performances at similar ages. Progress is non-linear so it's hard to know when someone is at their peak. Wightman progressed slowly and took his time to even make a global final. My reservation right now about Hocker, is that his skillset seems poorly suited to the modern 1500. He'd be a scarier prospect in the pre-Centro era. I think there's a big question mark over whether he can develop the sort of strengths that people like Kerr have.

This. I'm not sure people fully comprehend how much faster JI is than Hocker. 3.5 seconds is a lifetime when it's 3.5 second above your fastest time. Even running 1 second slower than JI would put Hocker in 8th ever for the 1500 and he's obviously nowhere near talented enough to do that.

Let’s not overcomplicate it, he just needs to be in 3:29 shape like anyone else in this era. His burst/kick gives him a nice edge in the rounds over the slow twitch guys like Mechaal/Katir/McSweyn. But yes he needs a full season to build fitness. What he did starting off from May only puts him at a talent level that is in there with the medalists.

Not to sound like a downer, but i think he will keep getting injured trying to reach 3:29. His form is just poor and forced compared to the rest of the field (top 5-6 guys).

He won't fixed that for the 2024 OG.

I don’t understand why people think his form is bad. Yes it doesn’t look good the last 100 but watch the first 1400 and it’s fine. He doesn’t look like his arms are everywhere for the entire 1500m race, lol. For the most part he looks calm and relaxed. When he gets into his sprint finish that’s when he’s all over the place.

Hocker is MUCH better than Wightman was at the same age.

Wightman ran low 3:34 less than a month before he turned 23. Jake was an also ran (on the world level) until he was 25 where he placed 5th in the 2019 Doha 1500m final.

Hocker is also faster than Kerr at 22. Kerr ran 3:34.5 at the same age (but 3:32.5 at 21; Hocker 3:31.4 at 20).

He could do that, but that's also just gambling that the chips will fall your way. Running sub-3:30 just gets someone in the game, the medals go to the people with a little extra, that maybe the kick off a hard pace (Kerr) or the extra level of strength (Katir). Right now, Hocker's not in with the potential medal group, he's there with Gourley, Habz, Nader, and McSweyn in the second tier. It's possible, one day, things go right for one of them and they nick a bronze but they all need to find something extra to join the elite tier of the 1500

For all the haters, let me ask you this - when Nuguse got injured in 2021, did he come back the next year to make the World team, make the world final and run 3:30? The answer is no, he didn't. I think it's safe to say Hocker still has a lot of upside if he can do what he did this year.

Yet he's able to run 12.0x in the last 100 with the so-called "poor form."

He arrived on the scene in 2021, made the OG final in 2021, was injured in 2022, and made the WC final in 2023.

Not too shabby

First they say, "don't run for PB's or records, they need to peak for champs and be ready for rounds. Do the time trials afterward."

Then they say," don't expect any fast times, they peaked for champs and are tired from all those rounds."

If the DL final is slow, they will say "of course it was, they were racing for place and points."

And whenever anyone happens to run fast anyway, they laugh and snicker, "yes but can they run rounds?"

So everyone should be able to just continuously PR every day of the year, regardless of circumstance?

I agree, the expectations that guys will PR over PR every race even in set ups is totally unreasonable. I think Hocker is doing fine for himself. He was no "could not miss" at all out of HS and in 4 years he is making finals. The one thing about Hocker is a bit glaring..in a 3:35-3:34 affair, his kick looks blistering, but he has never run under 1:46, now that is not a necessity, if you are instead a 7:30 or sub guy, but you don't see too many who are not one or the other winning stuff. Now could he pop a 1:45.5 or so? Next year? Surely..he doesn't need that much more to factor in the top of races. I always thought Clayton Murphy would be that "next " guy for the U.S. at 15, even though clearly his best event has turned out to be the 800, and even that has gone way sideways..U.S. 800M running is not very good to say the least, and you cannot keep using Brazier in a possible mix (and he was great)anymore or what if..it appears he is not coming back to full talent level anytime soon.

Hocker is a strength guy. He needs to be at sub 13:00, sub 7:30. He can do that. just needs a healthy year+

interesting that Kerr is neither a good 800 runner or good at the 5000. he is about as pure of a 1500/mile guy as there is. though he did beat a solid field in a 3000. What is that 7:33 worth for a 3:29 runner? 13:05-13:10?

Not at all. He is a sit and kicker in 3:35 races - these don't happen no more at world level (except qualifying rounds).

he is. he just hasn't been able to train well enough to kick in a 3:30 type of race. he needs more volume, than he will look like Nordas on the home stretch.