By Mitch Phillips
TOKYO (Reuters) – Portugal’s Isaac Nader was a shock winner of the world 1,500 metres title when he thrillingly out-dipped Briton Jake Wightman on the line after defending champion and race favourite Josh Kerr suffered an injury mid-race on Wednesday.
Wightman, who has suffered terribly from injuries after winning the title in 2022, looked set for victory in a charge for the line but the race proved a metre too long for him as Nader snatched it by two hundredths of a second in 3 minutes 34.10 seconds.
Wightman took silver in 3:34.12 – Britain’s first medal of the championships – with Kenya’s 21-year-old Reynold Cheruiyot edging compatriot and namesake Timothy for bronze in 3:34.25.
With the last two Olympic champions Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Cole Hocker absent – the Norwegian going out in the heats and the American disqualified after his semi-final – it looked an open race, but with Kerr the strong favourite.
Once he dropped back midway through, however, it was anyone’s. Wightman was the one to take it on in the final lap and, as the chasers closed on him 50 metres out, the Briton seemed to find a second wind to hold them off.
Nader, however, floated wide and kept driving, timing his lunge for the line perfectly for the biggest night of his life after a previous European Indoor Championships bronze.
“It’s amazing,” he said. “For me it’s beautiful. I’m so proud.”
Wightman, whose father Geoff was the stadium announcer on a memorably emotional night when he won the title in Eugene, said:
“This silver is a gold for me and I am so relieved. I still had something in me. I knew I was gong to run to try and win today and whatever happened I would be happy.”
“When you get that close you cannot help but think, ‘What if I had done more?’ But I left everything out there.
“It has been a few bleak years so making this team was the main thing and I have made some big changes in my life this year and I want to thank my new coaching team and my dad.
“I am so happy that all the persistence has been worth it.”
Kerr missed out agonisingly to Hocker in Paris but appeared to pull a muscle mid-race here and jogged in half a minute adrift, before hauling his teammate off the ground after Wightman had crashed to the track on the line.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ken Ferris)
Comments