By EDDIE PELLS
SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — Maybe it was the time Jakob Ingebrigtsen started playing to the crowd before he crossed the finish line, and beat Josh Kerr anyway.
Or maybe it when Kerr beat Ingebrigtsen three nights later with a gold medal on the line, then Ingebrigtsen blamed the loss on being sick.
Like any long-simmering feud, it’s hard to determine the exact point when the world’s best two 1,500-meter runners started disliking each other. At times, they’ve insisted they don’t know each other well enough to dislike the other.
You don’t need to be a track junkie to enjoy a great rivalry like this one, which hits its apex Tuesday. Expect the fireworks to fly in the showdown between the Norwegian defending Olympic champion and the Scottish reigning world champion at the Paris Games.
“They should be expecting one of the most vicious and hardest 1,500s the sport’s seen in a very long time,” Kerr said Sunday, after Ingebrigtsen edged him out in a semifinal that shouldn’t have meant all that much but still probably did.
Asked if he agreed with that assessment, well — of course Ingebrigtsen had his own take.
“I mean, racing is what you want it to be,” he said. “I thrive in the competitive scene. That’s why I do this. So maybe there’s a difference among us. Some people like other stuff.”
A look at some of the highlights — and lowlights — from the past year between Ingebrigtsen and Kerr.
Ingebrigtsen eggs on the crowd in semifinals at world championships
As he was rounding the final turn in the semifinals of last year’s world championships, Ingebrigtsen was more focused on the crowd than the competition.
He turned to the stands and gestured with his arms for the fans to get out of their seats. Then, paying only scant attention, he cruised past Kerr and a few others to finish first. It was an amazing or, to others, incredibly disrespectful bit of showmanship that set the stage for …
Kerr got the last laugh by taking down Ingebrigtsen in the final
Ingebrigtsen went out to the early lead and set the pace in the final. Kerr hung back until the final 200 meters, when he sling-shotted past the favorite to win in a season-best time of 3:29.38.
It marked the second straight year Ingebrigtsen got beaten by a Brit in a race at worlds he was expected to win. (Jake Wightman won in 2022.) Afterward, Ingebrigtsen said he was sick, and not feeling 100%, which annoyed people who thought it took away from Kerr’s victory.
“Not being 100 percent and not feeling 100 percent when it really matters, it’s disappointing,” Ingebrigtsen said.
Kerr suggests Ingebrigtsen’s success is a product of pacers
This is where it gets very “inside track,” but Kerr and others suggest Ingebrigtsen’s success over all these years has been largely thanks to so-called “pacers” — runners who set a certain pace for a race, then drop out of the mix before the end.
They are less common at major championships such as worlds and the Olympics, which leaves the top contenders to determine the tactics with no help. Some say it explains why Ingebrigtsen has lost in what’s supposed to be his best race at the last two world championships.
Ingebrigtsen grew annoyed when asked a question last summer about running without pacers: “When the pacemakers drop out, I’m the pacemaker. So every race is practice,” he said.
Kerr seized on this in “The Sunday Plodcast” last December, saying Ingebrigtsen was paced for his Olympic title three years ago by Timothy Cheruiyot. (Cheruiyot did, indeed, hold the lead for most of this race. But he was running to win and finished second.)
“I do think people will start realizing that now but I don’t think he will because the ego’s pretty high on this one,” Kerr said of the pacemaker digs.
Kerr’s reaction to Ingebrigtsen’s comment about becoming the pacemaker himself was toxic, too.
“I was like, ‘Oh, you have no idea. You must be surrounded by so many ‘yes men’ that you don’t realize that you have weaknesses and I think that was part of his downfall,” Kerr said.
Tuesday’s race probably won’t be the end of the trash talk
Ingebrigtsen also said earlier this year he could beat Kerr blindfolded at 3,000 meters.
If Kerr beats Ingebrigtsen at 1,500 on Tuesday, he will have the gold medal, but Ingebrigtsen’s supporters will point out that the Scotsman will still be 4-13 lifetime against their guy at 1,500 meters and the mile.
Ingebrigtsen also has a pair world titles at 5,000 meters and is entered in that race this year, too. Kerr says that’s not the real prize among distance racers.
Ingebrigtsen said he and Kerr have never spoken.
“I just think some things that they’re saying are on the border of lying and maybe being a coward,” he said, “because nobody’s told me anything to my face.”
Kerr also says he has no real relationship with his main rival.
“He’s trying to be the best in the world and so am I, and if that ruffles some feathers that’s OK with me,” Kerr said.
