Jakob Ingebrigtsen is asked about the new talent he faces from the US...

Are thinking of the Bowerman mile in 2018 when Jakob was SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD?

Do you have any Moroccans of the same caliber?

We don't have enough youth aged 17 with 1.83 height.

Maybe it's that.

Why would he care about the Americans this year? He races like 10 other guys who've run the same times as our guys in the 15 and 5 every year. The US is just arriving to the party.

As Brosnan would say, we in the US need to change our perception of what "fast" is. Just like "4:20 is not that fast", 3:50/3:32/13:00/27:00 isn't fast if we want to compete for medals.

everyone is beatable.

Look at the Olympics.

However, he's the best until he's beaten.

Come back and whine about your crushes then

It is a real journey, with myriad challenges along the way, for all the world's elite male 1500 runners to navigate from the here & now to the starting line of the 1500m final at the World's in Budapest this summer. Can Nuguse make it there?

Let's enjoy the ride, and see who is good (and smart) enough to toe that line. I'd love to see Jakob, Nuguse, Cheruiyot, Wightman, Ollie Hoare, Katir and the rest of the usual suspects there. It would be great to see Hocker return to form and get there too, of course. I'm sure Nuguse and Ritz understand the challenges. Ritz has emerged as quite a clever coach!

Since the question was about US runners, I assume it was primarily in reference to Nuguse in the 1500, as that is the one that has people asking the question.

If JI said "I am still better than any US runner", fine. If he said "I will prove I am the best" 1500 runner, fine. If Faith Kipyegon were asked about it and said "I am still the best" 1500 female runner, fine.

But JI saying that he is "still the best" 1500 runner is like France claiming to be "still the best" football team. We have global championships for a reason. He lost the last one. He doesn't get to claim to be "still the best" until he wins another.

Things are a bit different when you put on the big boy pants and run at real meets.

This isn't football. We don't have records in football. By your logic, you are saying if (I'm not saying he will, I don't think he will) he takes the world record in 1500 he is still not the best 1500 runner because he got outkicked by Wightman? Do you really believe this yourself, or did you forget to think this through?

This could just as likely have been about any other runner. The world of athletics doesn't work this way. Wightman is not "the best" 1500m runner if Nuguse lays down a 3:25:xx (or whatever).

Although there were many down votes for the quoted post above, I agree that competition in the early COVID era was watered down a little. COVID had a disproportionate impact on training and competition for Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, especially those who had not yet made their name. I would expect competition over the next years to be stiffer.

Yes, but lets not exaggerate this either. One look at the worlds best 1500m times all time suggest that its not like Jakob is a particularly weak runner to say the least. Of the active athletes only Cheruiyot has a better PR, but it might be true that we would have had a better 2022 season without covid.

Oh that's right, like when he raced at the Olympics.....wait a minute

Jakob is 22 and has Olympic gold, WC gold, WC silver, Indoor WC silver, the indoor 1500 WR, 9 DL wins, etc.

Obviously, Nuguse, Teare, Hocker and any other American you'd like to lump in as one of the mentioned "up and comers" has nowhere near those credentials yet, despite that all are older (except Hocker, 1 yr younger).

Additionally, in all of Jakob's racing, he's only ever raced any of those guys twice:
- 2021 Oly final v Hocker (Jakob won in 3:28 to 3:31)
- 2018 World U20s v Teare (Jakob 2nd in 3:41, Teare 12th in 3:46)

Also, none of those Americans has ever been ranked higher than Hocker's 10th in the 1500 world rankings in 2021 (Nuguse currently 16, J Thompson- 18, Hocker- 33, Teare- 82).

This crop of young Americans is super exciting, and I hope they make that next step. But, at this point, when an American asks the world's best runner what he thinks of a few Americans running fast in America, what else is he going to say? These guys are not yet his competition.

I don't care about LRC downvote because I know "who is here".

Interesting question, what would you give Fisher out of 10 for the Olympics? Pretty poor 5000, decent 10000 IMO… but decent isn’t enough to worry Jakob.

How exactly did covid have a disproportionate impact on training for Kenyans and Ethiopians? People from those countries were able to train away as normal. Runners from Europe and America on the other hand were not.

Yes, I thought it through. Track has records, but Jakob didn't set any significant one, so it is not relevant. I never said Wightman is the best, nor did I say that whoever wins the world championship is automatically the best. I simply said that Jakob cannot claim to "still be the best" after losing the most important 1500 race of the last season. I don't think it is clear who is the best, but people who finish second don't get to claim it. Otherwise, why have a global championship at all? People can just do time trials and send in the results.

Jakob won the Olympic 1500 because it played to his strengths. He lost the WC because it didn't. It remains unclear if he is the best 1500 runner, or just the best in certain kinds of 1500 races and therefore vulnerable to being outkicked if the race doesn't play out how he wants it to. I think this uncertainty and how the various players tactically approach it is what will make the 1500 in Budapest one of the most interesting races to watch.

So was El G not the best miler in the world in 2000?

Why not just come out and say you think Wightman was the best last season? It can’t be anyone other than him or Ingebrigtsen. Jake won the world final, Jakob won everything else. Pick one.

El G may have been the best Miler that year, but he wasn't the best on September 29th, 2000
Which was the important time to be the best

Jesus, this inebrigstein guy looks like a skeleton with an oversized head plopped on top. That is just really disgusting. Does he eat anything? ever?