2024 Olympics Day 1 AM: Kerr & Ingebrigtsen Impress While Nuguse Has to Work Hard to Advance

PARIS – The Josh & Jakob Show track & field competition at the 2024 Olympic Games are officially underway, and the two men who have been talking big and running fast all year, Josh Kerr and and Jakob Ingebrigtsen, were both impressive in their first-round heats of the 1500 meters. Kerr bossed his heat on the last lap to win going away while Ingebrigtsen demonstrated impressive closing speed by smoothly moving up from 12th to 3rd over the final 200 after hanging at the back for most of the race. 

American mile record holder Yared Nuguse did not have as smooth of a ride. Nuguse shared a heat with Kerr, but unlike the Brit, his attempts to move up were largely stymied until the home straight, when he had to work hard to come from behind to finish 5th (top six advanced automatically). Nuguse’s On Athletics Club teammate Ollie Hoare of Australia struggled even more as he faded badly from 3rd to 13th over the final 300 meters. Hoare joins his Aussie teammates Stewart McSweyn and Adam Spencer plus Brit George Mills among the notable athletes who will be forced to run in the repechage round on Saturday night.

In the 100, 35-year-old Marie-Josee Ta Lou of Cote D’Ivoire had the fastest time of the day (10.87) as Sha’Carri Richardson advanced comfortably from her heat, winning it in 10.94.

Below, nine takeaways from the first morning of track at the 2024 Olympics, with thoughts on Kerr, Nuguse, Hoare, Hobbs Kessler, Niels Laros, and more.

*Full results

Quick take: Josh Kerr put on an exhibition in heat 1

There are no bonus points for impressing in heat 1 of your event, but Josh Kerr was fabulous in heat #1 – a very different story from Kerr’s first Olympics in Tokyo, where he required a time qualifier to advance. Heat #1 was the most stacked of the three semis, but the final lap was no problem for Kerr.

Content to hang out near the back, Kerr was in 10th at the bell with the top 6 automatically advancing to the semis. By 200 to go, Kerr had passed nine guys and was in first thanks to an unofficial 25.9 200m split with some of it in lane 2. He would continue to open up a gap on the field the final 100m before letting off the gas a little but cruising home in first in 3:35.83, thanks to an unofficial 52.4 final lap (25.9, 26.5).

Unnecessary but impressive by Kerr.

Kevin Morris photo

Afterwards, Kerr told Eurosport France,“That was a blast. This stadium was very loud. I was very excited to get out there and blow the cobwebs a little bit, and see what the legs could do. Obviously just stay relaxed through the first half. Everyone was getting antsy, which I knew they would. When it’s time to go, it’s time to go. Let’s see what they’ve got left and it turned out to be a pretty chill day.”

When asked about Ingebrigtsen’s comments about how he races infrequently, Kerr said, “We raced earlier this season and we saw how that went. I know myself. I know my body. I know my skills. I’m here to win a gold medal for Team GB and I prepped accordingly. I’m very excited for the next couple of rounds and hopefully we can bring something home.”

Quick Take: Narve Nordas has taken a side in the Ingebrigtsen-Kerr rivalry

We did not talk to Nordas, the 2023 Worlds bronze medalist who advanced from Kerr’s heat in third place, but Nordas did talk to Kerr and his comments added fuel a rivalry that is already running hot. According to Eurosport, after the two men finished their heat, Nordas told Kerr: “beat my countryman,” clearly referring to Ingebrigtsen. Nordas is coached by Gjert Ingebrigtsen — Jakob’s estranged father, whom Jakob has accused of violent and abusive behavior. *Compiled Day 1 AM Results *WA Timing Site

Quick Take: The least experienced American Hobbs Kessler had it the easiest

Hobbs Kessler was the only of the three Americans without outdoor World Championship/Olympic experience but it did not show today. Hobbs told LetsRun after his race, “I know some people are critiquing my tactics but I’ve been pretty proud of them all year.”

He watched the Americans in the first two heats and saw them needing something in the final 100m to make the team. “I saw that. Everyone is a stud, you don’t want to be 10 meters behind 12 or 13 really good guys and have to close that. I tried to stay up front and not get tripped up and get a nice clean line,” he told LetsRun after the race.

As for Hocker’s race, where he was in a box with 250 to go, Hobbs said, “he’s got such good top-end speed he was able to get out.”

Kessler said his training has gone well after USAs except for a bout of COVID that he got immediately after the Trials, which he suspects he got at the notorious Wild Duck in Eugene.

“I think I got it going out right after is my suspicion,” Kessler said. “I wasn’t the only one. I was really cautious (coming back in training) because you hear all these horror stories of people getting greedy and training through COVID and just never recovering…You’ve got to watch out for the Wild Duck. It will get you,” he said to LetsRun. 

Nonetheless he said the plan was not to race between the Trials and the Olympics because he is doubling in the 1500 and 800 at both. He said he had “one of his best strength and one of his best distance workouts” in St. Moritz, where he did two weeks at altitude before Paris.

Quick take: LetsRun baby Niels Laros cruises to round 2

19-year-old Niels Laros, who grew up listening to the LetsRun.com Track Talk podcast while sitting in the back of his parents’ car, advanced to round 2. With his youthful smile, he greeted the LetsRun crew in the mixed zone, like we were longtime friends. On his first Olympic experience, he said it was, “Great. Amazing. I didn’t expect the stadium to be this full on the first day in the morning. So it was great and of course a relief to bet through the heats.”

When asked if he had any trepidation about falling as he fell in his last two Diamond League races he said, “I don’t think you should be scared to fall since it’s 15 guys fighting for the same position. There’s always some pushing. I learned something from that. And that’s good to have the experience here.”

He did point to a bruise and some scratches on his leg, but mentally there were no effects.

Quick Take: It was a rough morning from the On Athletics Club

The On Athletics Club has three entrants in the men’s 1500 – Nuguse, Hoare, and Spain’s Mario Garcia Romo – and before the Olympics, they had been joking about what would happen if all three were drawn in the same heat. Then the heat draw came out and it actually happened: all three were in heat 1. Suddenly it was not so funny. With only six men advancing from each heat, they knew they might have to beat each other to make it through.

None of the three ran well on Friday. That Garcia Romo (10th in 3:37.90) did not advance is not a huge surprise; though he has finished 4th and 6th at the last two Worlds, he has not run great in 2024 and did not make the final at the European championship. But Nuguse ran a near-personal best of 3:29.13 in Monaco three weeks ago and Hoare was coming off a Diamond League win in London two weeks ago. There was no reason for them to be so flat.

Nuguse did not run a strong tactical race, hanging near the back but also running distance on the outside. He tried to move up at the bell but found himself blocked, and still was not in qualifying position with 35 meters to go. His race was jarring when compared to Kerr, who also had to come from way back on the last lap but looked much better doing it.

Nuguse downplayed any concerns, saying he felt good physically but could not find the room to run until late.

“That was not my best work…My legs felt good,” Nuguse said. “That last 200, I was just like, I have the energy I need. If this doesn’t open up on the inside like I want it to, I’m screwed. Once it opened up, I was like, okay, it’s fine, I can just flow through.”

Hoare (13th in 3:39.11) looked the worst of the three, and his underperformance meant that OAC only advanced one of its three athletes to the semis. More on Hoare below.

Quick Take: Ollie Hoare’s global championship struggles continue

Hoare made the final in his first global outdoor championship, the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo, but his record since then is not good. He failed to make the final at the 2022 Worlds even though he was in great shape – remember, he defeated world champ Jake Wightman to win the Commonwealth Games three weeks later. Last year, Hoare missed Worlds due to injury, and today he bombed his prelim. Hoare was well-positioned in 3rd at the bell but fell all the way back to 13th at the bell.

Hoare noted that his heat was difficult (it was definitely the strongest of the three) and said he got bumped around on the last lap. But part of that bumping came as a result of Hoare slowing down.

“I wasn’t able to close that last 300, 200, just felt pretty sleepy,” Hoare said. “When you have that kind of field for a first round, it was pretty brutal.”

Kevin Morris photo

Hoare has been an outspoken critic of the repechage round on his Coffee Club Podcast this year, and said he would have accepted his fate had the new system not been in place. But he does have a chance for redemption and plans on taking it on Saturday.

“If I had that race [today], not my day, I’m not through, then I feel like that’s just the way the sport goes,” Hoare said. “But the repechage is a new thing and I have another opportunity to race, and any time you get to race at the Olympics, you should probably take it.”

Quick Take: Cole Hocker said he didn’t race after the Trials because “we had more work to do”

Hocker is known for his big kick but doesn’t like to rely on a furious final 100m to qualify in the rounds if he can avoid it. This time, however, Hocker felt he could not avoid it. He was boxed in with 200 to go but wound up moving up well, going from 11th on the final turn to 2nd at the finish.

“I was like, either I get really frantic and start jostling around with 200 to go or I just wait,” Hocker said. “I was counting the heads in front of me with 150 to go and I was like, oh I know I can catch half of this field.”

Kevin Morris photo

Today was Hocker’s first race since the 5,000 final at the Olympic Trials on June 30. He said he had the option of running Monaco three weeks ago, but his coach Ben Thomas felt Hocker would be better served getting in an uninterrupted training block in Blacksburg before the Olympics, and Hocker agreed. As impressive as his Trials victory was, he knows he will have to be at his absolute best if he is to contend with the likes of Ingebrigtsen and Kerr in Paris.

“We just had a little bit more work to do,” Hocker said. “We tapered off a little bit for Trials, but if you have a whole other month, you can get a lot more work in and I feel that was very helpful for me and necessary.”

Quick Take: Timothy Cheruiyot says this is the best he has felt at a global championship since 2019

For a guy who has won a world title and two global silvers and has run 3:28 this year, Timothy Cheruiyot is somehow flying under the radar. Perhaps it is because he did not make the final last year in Budapest, but Cheruiyot was not healthy at that meet, developing a knee injury that kept him sidelined until February. Injuries have been a pattern for Cheruiyot in recent years as he also dealt with a hamstring issue in 2022, but so far in 2024 he has had no setbacks and he is feeling confident as a result. Cheruiyot told LetsRun this is the best he has felt at a championship since he won the world title in 2019.

Even better than when he ran 3:29.01 for silver at the 2021 Olympics?

“Yes,” Cheruiyot told LetsRun.

Quick Take: The crowd was awesome

We weren’t sure what to expect today. A weekday morning session with no finals? Would the fans still be into it? The answer was a resounding YES. The 77,000-seat Stade de France was packed with fans and they made a ton of noise for the French athletes, even for an event like the decathlon shot put. This was exactly the type of atmosphere you expect from the Olympics. Félicitations, Paris.