It's margins at the very top. It's what makes Jakob and Kerr so impressive. They're the only two that were consistently around the medals between 2021 and 2024. When the race goes into 3:35+ territory, so many guys have a brutal close. Hocker's great strength is still having that when the race goes 3:30-ish, but no one seems to want to make it that sort of race now Jakob is injured. I still make Hocker the favourite for any 1500, but now overwhelmingly so, and I'd certainly never take him over the field. I wouldn't even be that surprised if he lost to Kerr in Torun
Nathan Green STUNS the world. Wins 2026 USA 1500 title. Cole Hocker only 5th
Pro News/Info/Results
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king999 wrote:
Yesterday if Nico Young doesn't have to cover 10-12 or so meters more in the final half of the race thanks to his stupid and unnecessary position in the opening half of the race (he was 14th at one point - why?) then Hocker getting shuffled back to 4th in a slow race with 600m to go should have killed him - but of course it didn't.
Stitch, you know I usually love your stuff on here, on this take on Hocker, I cannot agree. First of all Nico Young does not get credit for a race he did not run(tactically) , altho you mention it 100% correctly, thats on him. Hocker had to go way into the well with that 2:21.x yesterday to expect too much today, on the turnaround, I think and I am wrong way more than enough. I could tell he was in trouble three different times, when you get shuffled back to 5th indoors, past half way, thats gonna be a rough ride in so to speak. Nuguse, was almost gonna give up, it looked like to me, but manned up to try and get there, also had nothing. A fresh guy with no trials or heats won, this did not surprise me as much as it seems to have others.
The King!
Yeah good points to discuss.
Regarding the 3000m yesterday, I think the point I was trying (maybe didn't articulate correctly) to make was the pattern of in-race strategy being eerily consistent no matter what he runs, and (I hate to say it as a Hocker fan for a long time now), him relying on some legit missteps of others to win these.
So with respect to yesterday, Young gets beaten by 4 one-hudredths by Cole and 1 one-hundredth by Yared, and this is despite him having to work so much harder in the final half of the race. At the point Cole Hocker had exactly 1600m to run (the 1400m) point, Young had to make up 13 meters on him. The question for me is would Young have been able to run the final lap faster than 26.86 had his final 1000m not had to be 2.21.3? Just my opinion he could have and that conversely would have seen a similar result to today (Hocker not winning).
I'm not giving Nico credit - he messed it up and inexplicably so (and now it looks like there will be no Worlds for him as Nuguse will run the 3) But if he even runs a marginally better opening 1400m in that one he's should have won it and Hockers race script would have failed.
I see the point about fresh legs and yes that was a hard race yesterday. But this is the reigning Olympic 1500m and reigning world 5000m champ. I think he has enough strength to have won both events at these champs - no disrespect to the other guys in the 1500m. The big problem he had today was being so out of position when Davis Bove lost his shoe with 300 to go. That allowed the front 4 to get the jump off an already slow pace - he simply underestimated the speed of the race, the quality of his opponents and a non-predictable, unfortunate incident.
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don't make such a bf deal; duh, he had tired legs after 3k yesterday!
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still brilliant wrote:
OldRWRunner wrote:
Kara Goucher - "Cole is a great tactician." Does she watch him run? He has been lucky several times and often his talent just overcomes poor tactics. I just can't handle her.
Do you expect anyone's race tactics to work out 100% of the time?
His tactics failed him in the 1500 semis at Worlds last year. But otherwise they've been brilliant. He would not have Olympic gold, and many other of his major wins, if he hadn't been patient when anyone else would have panicked and gone for an outside pass. And he doesn't always stay glued to the rail (see World Champs 5k last year).
I think today he was just flat, like everyone else who raced the 3k yesterday (Nuguse, Mackay, etc.). It's indoor champs, Worlds isn't for another three weeks, so people are training through it to some extent and not able to bounce back as quickly.
Everyone also needs to remember the truism: indoor track is weird. Tight turns, overcrowded, harder to find daylight to unwind a kick. As fans, we all love watching races in the middle of God forsaken winter, but outdoors is really where we will be able to judge who is best and whose tactics work. With that said, with no outdoor world championships this year, races will be more time trial-ish and less tactical. If Hocker wants to stake a clear claim to being the best and a cut above his competition Diamond League races will be the proving ground in '26. He needs to enter a handful of them and win.
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Green winning this race was not a 'stunner' at all. He is a two-time NCAA mile champion and looked very strong in easily winning the Husky Classic a couple of weeks ago in 3:50:31. I guess he won't receive qualifying credit for that one because the University of Washington track is longer than 200 meters. But he should be competing for the U.S. at Worlds.
Houser is a 2-time NCAA indoor champion and obviously knows how to race well indoors.
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Hocker the Jakob of the US, what a dumb freakin take. Jakob had 2 Olympic golds, two outdoor world champ golds, numerous European championships and he doubled in last years indoor world champs, the only person to do that since.
Only two men in history have achieved the 1500m and 3,000m double at the same World Athletics Indoor Championships:
Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia): Achieved the feat in 1999 (Maebashi).
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway): Achieved the feat in 2025 (Nanjing). worldathletics.org +3
Ingebrigtsen became the second man to accomplish this, winning the 3000m on March 22 and the 1500m on March 23, 2025, to complete the historic distanceOnly an ignoramus would make that statement and comparison.
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Thoughtsleader needs to change his handle to something else, it is inherently conveying a high opinion of his own view points anyway.
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Ufoee wrote:
rojo wrote:
Just like Jakob, people assume that since he's the Olympic champion, he is great at the 1500
Yeah well the Olympic champion usually is great at his event, but sometimes Hicham would lose his main event. It happens, and doubling can make it more likely.
If Kerr anyd Jacob weren’t so busy obsessing over each other and ran the race in front of them he wouldn’t have skipped through. He was overlooked and underestimated and he took gold for it. Hadn’t taken one since in the 1500
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rojo wrote:
Keely Dan wrote:
What does that even mean?
It means he's really good at 3000/5000 but unable to win at 1500?
Just like Jakob Ingebrigttsen. In case you have forgotten, Cole was only third at USAs last year in the 1500. He was 5th today. Just like Jakob, people assume that since he's the Olympic champion, he is great at the 1500 but his last 3 tactical 1500s haven't been great. 5th today, DQd at Worlds and 3rd at USA outdoors.
Cole Hocker is certainly not Jakob. He has no history of completing the 1500/3000 double at the national or international level, whereas Jakob has completed it 3 times at the European championships and once at world championships just last year. As Hocker and Nuguse showed today, it’s no easy feat.
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rojo wrote:
Does this mean Cole is now the Jakob of the US?
No. It means he is just the "next guy" of the US.
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nahhdht wrote:
simpleton wrote:
In no way is Cole Hocker the "Jakob of the US."
Jakob's 1500m losses have come when he forces the pace and depletes his own kick.
Hocker is too complacent in the set-up for the kick, giving himself too much work to do.
Very different problems.
He more means that both have been dominating in regular season races and then when it comes to championships absolutely bombing out.
That’s not what he means. Everyone on here is saying Hocker lost every 1500/mile in the last 18 months except for the 3:45 race. some are even claiming he is no longer good at 1500.
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People used to downvote me when I said Nathan Greene has a better kick than Cole Hocker.
Go Dawgs! Woof!
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trackfangirl wrote:
Hocker the Jakob of the US, what a dumb freakin take. Jakob had 2 Olympic golds, two outdoor world champ golds, numerous European championships and he doubled in last years indoor world champs, the only person to do that since.
Only two men in history have achieved the 1500m and 3,000m double at the same World Athletics Indoor Championships:
Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia): Achieved the feat in 1999 (Maebashi).
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway): Achieved the feat in 2025 (Nanjing). worldathletics.org +3
Ingebrigtsen became the second man to accomplish this, winning the 3000m on March 22 and the 1500m on March 23, 2025, to complete the historic distanceOnly an ignoramus would make that statement and comparison.
Euro and indoors are the G-league of championships. Nobody cares.
Hocker is a gamer, and would only peak for races that matter, the result of which is more GLOBAL championship golds than Jakob since Paris.
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Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:
king999 wrote:
Yesterday if Nico Young doesn't have to cover 10-12 or so meters more in the final half of the race thanks to his stupid and unnecessary position in the opening half of the race (he was 14th at one point - why?) then Hocker getting shuffled back to 4th in a slow race with 600m to go should have killed him - but of course it didn't.
Stitch, you know I usually love your stuff on here, on this take on Hocker, I cannot agree. First of all Nico Young does not get credit for a race he did not run(tactically) , altho you mention it 100% correctly, thats on him. Hocker had to go way into the well with that 2:21.x yesterday to expect too much today, on the turnaround, I think and I am wrong way more than enough. I could tell he was in trouble three different times, when you get shuffled back to 5th indoors, past half way, thats gonna be a rough ride in so to speak. Nuguse, was almost gonna give up, it looked like to me, but manned up to try and get there, also had nothing. A fresh guy with no trials or heats won, this did not surprise me as much as it seems to have others.
The King!
Yeah good points to discuss.
Regarding the 3000m yesterday, I think the point I was trying (maybe didn't articulate correctly) to make was the pattern of in-race strategy being eerily consistent no matter what he runs, and (I hate to say it as a Hocker fan for a long time now), him relying on some legit missteps of others to win these.
So with respect to yesterday, Young gets beaten by 4 one-hudredths by Cole and 1 one-hundredth by Yared, and this is despite him having to work so much harder in the final half of the race. At the point Cole Hocker had exactly 1600m to run (the 1400m) point, Young had to make up 13 meters on him. The question for me is would Young have been able to run the final lap faster than 26.86 had his final 1000m not had to be 2.21.3? Just my opinion he could have and that conversely would have seen a similar result to today (Hocker not winning).
I'm not giving Nico credit - he messed it up and inexplicably so (and now it looks like there will be no Worlds for him as Nuguse will run the 3) But if he even runs a marginally better opening 1400m in that one he's should have won it and Hockers race script would have failed.
I see the point about fresh legs and yes that was a hard race yesterday. But this is the reigning Olympic 1500m and reigning world 5000m champ. I think he has enough strength to have won both events at these champs - no disrespect to the other guys in the 1500m. The big problem he had today was being so out of position when Davis Bove lost his shoe with 300 to go. That allowed the front 4 to get the jump off an already slow pace - he simply underestimated the speed of the race, the quality of his opponents and a non-predictable, unfortunate incident.
So, a lot to unpack as they say.
1. I knew what you meant on Young and here is my thought and I say this a lot to other folks when I see it. If you position yourself early too far back which he did , against top notch guys, you may get to the top but the energy used may just get you a little short ie past 200’s separated by very little.On Hocker we may have to just marginally disagree and not by much. Hocker had run pretty hard already this season, that was a big ask for all he was worth nipping those guys.
Then he ran extra meters in the 15
Normally because of what he has become strength wise ? I would not think it would tax him, but I think it might have … this way. He probably thought in that field he could just punch it down and shift away, but that little residual from all out war to finish to win was barely enough to thwart his effort.
Even with all of that he lost by .5?
Good chat!! Hope all is well.
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SledgeHammers wrote:
trackfangirl wrote:
Hocker the Jakob of the US, what a dumb freakin take. Jakob had 2 Olympic golds, two outdoor world champ golds, numerous European championships and he doubled in last years indoor world champs, the only person to do that since.
Only two men in history have achieved the 1500m and 3,000m double at the same World Athletics Indoor Championships:
Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia): Achieved the feat in 1999 (Maebashi).
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway): Achieved the feat in 2025 (Nanjing). worldathletics.org +3
Ingebrigtsen became the second man to accomplish this, winning the 3000m on March 22 and the 1500m on March 23, 2025, to complete the historic distanceOnly an ignoramus would make that statement and comparison.
Euro and indoors are the G-league of championships. Nobody cares.
Hocker is a gamer, and would only peak for races that matter, the result of which is more GLOBAL championship golds than Jakob since Paris.
The only reason why Hocker has more golds than Jakob since Paris is because Jakob has been injured.
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SledgeHammers wrote:
trackfangirl wrote:
Hocker the Jakob of the US, what a dumb freakin take. Jakob had 2 Olympic golds, two outdoor world champ golds, numerous European championships and he doubled in last years indoor world champs, the only person to do that since.
Only two men in history have achieved the 1500m and 3,000m double at the same World Athletics Indoor Championships:
Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia): Achieved the feat in 1999 (Maebashi).
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway): Achieved the feat in 2025 (Nanjing). worldathletics.org +3
Ingebrigtsen became the second man to accomplish this, winning the 3000m on March 22 and the 1500m on March 23, 2025, to complete the historic distanceOnly an ignoramus would make that statement and comparison.
Euro and indoors are the G-league of championships. Nobody cares.
Hocker is a gamer, and would only peak for races that matter, the result of which is more GLOBAL championship golds than Jakob since Paris.
Thats all well and good, but… it’s hard to win anything right now, you have Laros a beast up and coming or already there and a bunch more at 15
5 K in our own country is stronger than ever tough to even make teams.
i think it is unrealistic to think anyone is a lock to win anything anymore in the U.S
Or make teams
Let alone win World type golds
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Nansh wrote:
Sloedirt wrote:
Can believe Green won. Can’t believe Hocker was 5th.
Heart also breaks for Ciattei, I hope he wins the World Road Mile this September
Did Green and Houser say where they will be racing to try to get standard?
I looked. I can’t find any meets before March 8 deadline (other than HS meets). Is there anything? Again, did anybody ask them?
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Vince is one of the nicest guys around also. Always respectful to everyone. He deserved this one. still wish he would learn to run smarter
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rojo wrote:
Does this mean Cole is now the Jakob of the US?
Is this supposed to be an insult? I’d love to be the “Jakob of the US”
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volz wrote:
Vince is one of the nicest guys around also. Always respectful to everyone. He deserved this one. still wish he would learn to run smarter
Agree with your first 3 statements. But what could he have done smarter today?
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