Michael Johnson said Josh Kerr should be ‘happy’ with silver but believes the Team GB star was overly ‘caught up’ in Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s tactics in this evening’s men’s 1500m final at the Paris Olympics.
Kerr entered this summer’s Games as one of Team GB’s great hopes for an athletics gold medal, with the 26-year-old looking to improve on the bronze he won in Tokyo three years ago.
In the build-up, Sebastian Coe billed the final as a ‘race for the ages’ between Kerr and arch-rival Ingebrigtsen – and it certainly did not disappoint. However, there was a huge shock as the USA’s Cole Hocker stormed home to clinch gold with a new Olympic record time.
Ingebrigtsen, who has long been embroiled in a war of words with Kerr, started the race at a lightning pace, asking serious questions of the rest of the field at a bouncing Stade de France.
But the Norwegian had expended most of his energy by the final bend and finished the race down in fourth, with Hocker, Kerr and Yared Nuguse all passing him on the home straight to claim gold, silver and bronze respectively.
And while Kerr posted a new national record time, BBC Sport pundit Johnson felt the Brit was sucked in by Ingebrigtsen’s explosive start – which may ultimately have cost him the gold medal.
‘I was going crazy up here because we’ve been talking in the US for quite some time about when our middle-distance runners are going to be able to win major medals,’ the legendary US athlete – a former world-record holder in the 200m and 400m – said shortly after the race.
‘Everyone was excited about Yared Nuguse, we’ve been excited about him for a couple of years, he just came out of college. But Cole Hocker had an amazing US Olympic trials and started to put himself in the conversation.
‘Hocker ran a brilliant race, tactically took his time, saw what was going on. That was pretty crazy what Ingebrigtsen was doing and, actually, I think Josh did get caught up in that a bit and felt like he needed to stay there, stay in contact.
‘Ingebrigtsen left the door open coming off that bend and Cole Hocker just took the inside because he was perfectly positioned.’
Johnson added: ‘In the end, Ingebrigtsen was trying to push people off on the outside and just opened the door even more. But Ingebrigtsen will be the most disappointed of them all.
‘I think Josh will be happy with his silver, happy that he got back on that podium again.
‘He wants gold, he feels like he can get it at some point but I think he’ll be happy at the end.’
Speaking to BBC Sport just moments after securing silver, Kerr stressed that he was ‘extremely proud’ of his performance and thanked his loved ones for their support heading into the final.
‘Look, I can’t walk away from this championship disappointed. Obviously I said what my goals were, it was pretty obvious but I put a performance out there today that I was extremely proud of,’ he said.
‘I focussed on my controllables, I ran the fastest and best tactical 1500m I’ve ever ran in my life and so I can’t start worrying about what everyone else does from the results. Then you’ll never be satisfied.
‘It’s obviously not the colour of medal that I want but it’s working towards the right colour, from bronze to silver. I just want to thank everyone: my team, family members to be able to put me in a position out there to leave it all out there and that’s what I did today.’
Kerr added: ‘I’m 26, this road is not over. I really wanted it today and obviously I didn’t get it.
‘There’s going to be that part of me that’s eager and ready for that next one but I’m really, really proud of the way I executed it today and that’s going to have to be enough just now.
‘It makes me hungry and ready for more and I’m just glad I was able to add to Team GB’s medal count today.’
Asked whether he expected Ingebrigtsen to start so fast, Kerr replied: ‘Yeah, I knew we had to weather a storm early, keep calm and make sure that we were staying emotionally as locked in as we could.
‘Then, with 600m to go, I really felt like I had quite a lot left and coming off that last bend I obviously got pushed out a little bit and just had to work hard.
‘There’s a lot of running left at that point and it’s so difficult to keep track of everything that’s going on in the last 100m or so.
‘The result is the result but I’m super proud of the way I executed today.’
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