Jakob Ingebrigtsen officially confirms he is injury free and will run in Tokyo

I think fans got Spooked when he bombed that half (despite him telling us that finishing the race would be good).

I'm still baffled that folks think a 12:48 (from 3-4 years ago) and a 7:17 guy would struggle with a fast championship 5000.

maybe he does this year because he hasn’t raced. We’ll find out in couple weeks.

He will win easily

I don't understand how this is still a debate at this point. Jakob aside, look at the last two years - Kwemoi medaling in the 5000m last year, and Hocker winning the 5000 this year, both over excellent fields. You cannot let a 3:26/3:27/3:28 guy sit on you in a 5k like that. You just can't.

The difficulty of course, is that the alternative, a fast race, is essentially impossible to execute in a championship setting. There is a reason the OR is still 12:58, which still came from one of the greatest, perhaps THE greatest championship 5000m ever run.

Maybe Josh Chep could have done it on a perfect day in 2020 had the Olympics never been cancelled and run a low 12:4x from the front. Who knows. Point is, you can't.

You have a very good point (that I’m very well aware of) when you are mentioning Coe and Walker. And there’s no problem finding very “decent” races from both, where they firmly contribute to a fast pace. Yes, paradoxically Coe was often even too tough in his opening lap (often 54) in 1500m time trials, and therefore missed stellar times (but eventually, thankfully and very deserved pb’ed with over 2 sec, and went sub 3.30 at nearly 30 years of age).

Don’t get me wrong -there are a lot of good reasons for not leading or contributing to the pace in a 1500m champs. So my “decent way” is not the totally generalised thing that it may sound like. But I will elaborate on what I mean by “decent” in a later post.

I do agree in your general concept here. But there’s a fact that Jakob hasn’t met a peak Cheptegei, a peak Kejelcha, a peak Aregawi or a peak Gebrhiwet in a 5000m champs. That doesn’t mean that Jakob would have lost (but he might have), but he surely wouldn’t have won so easily…

Perfect tactics and a 50.62 last lap have nothing to do with luck. A bit like Hocker, one might say.

You should listen to what Centro himself is saying in some of the interviews: This very sympathetic and honest American stresses that his front running wasn’t deliberate, and that he got lucky. Saying that, I personally think he also was very good…

3 years, Dumb.

The rest of the field adopted lousy tactics. A 3:50 race demonstrates that when there were sub-3:30 runners in the field. Centro wasn't one of them.

You said that at the beginning of the year. It was 2021 and it is now nearing the end of 2025. You are aware that time moves on? Apparently not.

And yet he executed the race perfectly.

Hardly. One commenter here would suggest he didn't win "decently", as it was effectively a race for only one lap - the slowest final in over 80 years. He might have just beaten Beccali at LA in '32. A clown show.

Let's have a history lesson on the "lousy tacticians" in the rest of the field:

- 3:28.75 PR + defending Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi, freshly minted 800m silver Olympic medalist.

- 3:29.66 PR Olympic silver medalist Nick Willis, longest sub4 mile streakholder (20 consecutive years)

- 3:26.69 PR three-time World champ and 2008 Olympic champ Asbel Kiprop, at the time regarded as the world's greatest miler.

- 3:29.58 PR World champ and World bronze medalist Ayanleh Souleiman

- 3:28:79 PR Olympic bronze medalist, World champ, and three-time World bronze medalist Abdalaati Iguider

- 3:31.06 PR Australian record holder Ryan Gregson

- 3:28.81 PR world junior record holder and Olympic silver medalist Ronald Kwemoi

OH AND ALSO 3:30.40 PR World champ, silver, and bronze medalist Matthew MF Centrowitz Jr.

Sounds like a loaded field to me. And sounds like always you are salty and trying to bring down the achievements of others. "Tall poppy syndrome" as they call it in your country. Stop being a negative nancy and appreciate how great this race was.

- Willis' best that season was 3:34, longest sub4 mile streakholder is irrelevant to the discussion

- Kiprop was injured and his best that season was 3:29.33

- Souleiman's best 1500m was 3:31.68 before the games

Not even going to finish, the field was weak

The field certainly wasn't weak, but a lot of runners (even in the Final) had off years that year like Kiprop. But if you look at 2015, it's in fact one of the strongest championship races and fields ever. That's why Centro was blown away on the last lap after medaling at the two World Champs before. But in 2016, Manangoi/Tim didn't make it and nobody wanted to lead. I'd still not worry about times in an Olympic year, Makhloufi and Souleiman were surely well "tuned-up" for Rio. Centro outfoxed the two of them nonetheless even if they could've beat him in a straight-up time trial. Ditto the fitter Kwemoi (who fell due to Souleiman), and Kiprop who botched his tactics and got manhandled by Makhloufi when it mattered. Iguider was another perennial contender who suffered in a slower race.

Kejelcha and Gebrihiwet both PR’d last year in the 5K. They just didn’t show up at WC’s as usual

The childish view of an unbelievable dumb person - which you prove to be again and again.

To stretch the time span without a global 1500m final just reflects your stupidity.

But what should be expected from someone who doesn't understand the concept of a country.

Ingebrigtsen lost the global 1500m outdoor finals in the years 22, 23 and 24 - 3 years, Dumb, not 4. If he runs in Tokyo and loses, than it's 4 years in a row.

You got it now, Dumb?

Hocker has lost all global finals since 1 year...

Gebrhiwet was there (in the OG covid sick). Kejelcha wasn’t allowed to run by his federation. -These things happen; one of the reasons why I don’t think we should rely on one race (the champs) to decide who is the best, instead of times and achievements throughout the season. And Jakob is hard to place since he only ran one 5000m with global competition that year. But luckily he had his 3000m WR of course…

Oh no, "only" 3:29.33, which was at the time, faster than any American not named Bernard Lagat, had ever run. Whether or not he got lucky (I don't think he did, I don't think anyone was gonna beat him that day), Centro beat a damn good field.