EUGENE — There hadn’t been a European world champion in the men’s 1,500 meters since Great Britain’s Steve Cram won the inaugural event in 1983.
His fellow countryman Jake Wightman changed that Tuesday night.
Wightman ran a world-leading 3 minutes, 29.23 seconds to top a particularly quick field and win gold at the World Athletics Championships at Hayward Field.
It was the second-fastest time at a world championships, behind only the 3:27.65 by Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999, and a feat accomplished by the 10th-place finisher at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
“The most important thing is the trust and belief that you cannot be beaten,” Wightman said. “I just got through the laps and I knew that if I was there a lap to go, I have a chance. To take the win, I think it will take me a long time to sink in. I think Tokyo went so bad that I felt a lot of disappointment. It has taken me to this point when I shake that off. I just felt this was a reflection of what I can do. And that was a biggest thing I have ever done.”
Calling Wightman’s victorious run was his father, Geoff Wightman, one of the stadium announcers at Hayward Field. After the race, father and son posed for photos along with Wightman’s mother, Susan.
Geoff and Susan Wightman pose with their son, gold medalist Jake Wightman, after the men’s 1,500-meter final run at the World Athletics Championships on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, in Eugene. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)AP
Wightman said he went into the race with confidence, wanting to show he was in good shape and trying to build on that.
“If that was a medal, it is a medal,” he said. “If that was a win — very, very small chance it happens, but it actually happened. That is just crazy. I think I got this self belief. If you know you have this ability, you have to be self confident or you’re going to lose. I just had nothing to lose, so I took the risk and it paid off.”
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the gold medalist in Tokyo and this year’s indoor championships, took silver in a season-best 3:29.47. He led most of the first three laps along with Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot, but Wightman passed Ingebrigtsen near the end of the backstretch on the final lap.
“He wasn’t the No. 1 guy (entering the race),” Ingebrigtsen said. “He had the best race. He definitely deserved it. He’s a great guy and a great runner, of course. But everybody else fought the way they did, so he took an advantage of that, so he had the better race.”
Ingebrigtsen said he was frustrated that he didn’t do a better job to avoid being passed.
“I’m very disappointed in my race because I let the door open to get attacked from the outside and that’s the mistake I made,” he said. “Because if I had kept the pace a little bit faster from that point, nobody would have challenged me on the outside because they would have saved their energy because the pace was already so fast. But when the point where I hit the front, we went through pretty fast, so that’s why it caught me by surprise that somebody made those decisions to attack me like he did.”
Spain’s Mohamed Katir took the bronze medal in 3:29.90, narrowly edging his countryman Mario García (3:30.20).
“I knew that I would get a medal one day,” Katir said. “Winning this medal won’t make any difference in my life. I’m still down on earth, and I will always be humble. The difference is that now, I believe in myself. When I arrive at championships, I always want to fight, and above all to have fun.”
The silver medalist in Tokyo and the 2019 world champion, Cheruiyot finished sixth in 3:30.69 with fellow Kenyan Abel Kipsang fading down the stretch for seventh (3:31.21).
The United States’ Josh Thompson, who trains in Portland with the Bowerman Track Club, finished last in the 12-man field in 3:35.57.
