Hi everyone, we - at The Telegraph - have just published an exclusive interview with Jakob Ingebrigtsen in which he discusses his 'duty' to see how fast humans can run, doping in track and field and his relationship with Josh Kerr. Think it might be of interest to runners here...
Telegraph Sport's Jeremy Wilson sat down with Jakob Ingebrigtsen for an exclusive interview:
“I have a responsibility to see what the human race possibly can do,” says Jakob Ingebrigtsen who, between mouthfuls of cake and a huge sandwich, has been trying to convey the drive behind a story of family obsession that is perhaps the most compelling in world sport.
The question had been simple – “why do you love running?” – and, as his usually quick-thinking and incisive mind went searching for the answer, an acute sense of destiny seemed to sweep over.
By his own reckoning, Ingebrigtsen has been training professionally since the age of “four or five”. At 12, he was already lifting weights, running twice a day and covering upwards of 100 kilometres a week. By 16, he had become the youngest person to run a four-minute mile. Now 24, he is the holder of five world records, two Olympic gold medals, two world titles and 21 European Championship golds. Plenty of good judges believe that he will become the greatest endurance runner in human history. And yet this still feels less about the pursuit of medals, records or money and more about being the youngest by almost eight years of three exceptional running brothers.
The significance here is that a unique system overseen by their father Gjert had been honed following its ultimate experiment by the time Jakob was born in the year 2000.
“Growing up, getting better and better – it’s not a privilege but it’s a duty I have with our history, my training base, and all the time that me, my family and my team have put in, to see where the limit actually is,” explains Ingebrigtsen.
“So it doesn’t automatically stop when I break the records if I don’t feel like I have reached the potential. It doesn’t really have anything to do with anybody else. We have built our philosophy and training from the ground up.
“I will never feel motivated or unmotivated… because it is irrelevant. I’ve always felt a responsibility to do it 100 per cent. I feel a duty to see how fast I can run to show everybody what is possible in our time. That is the goal.”
