Ingebrigtsen kicks 12.60 for the last 100 m to win the first Ultimate 5000 m in 12:59.24
On the opening night in Budapest the Olympic champion closed a 54.39 last lap to beat Cole Hocker and Parker Wolfe, both just outside 13 minutes.
Photograph: Jakob Ingebrigtsen at the 2019 World Championships in Doha, by Erik van Leeuwen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe first World Athletics Ultimate Championship opened in Budapest on Friday night, cool and breezy, and the men's 5000 m went exactly the way Jakob Ingebrigtsen wanted. He sat in the pack, was fifth at the bell and still fourth with 200 m to run, then changed gear off the final bend and ran the last 100 m in 12.60. He won in 12:59.24, his first time under 13 minutes in five years, with a 54.39 last lap and a 2:25 last kilometre. Cole Hocker, the world champion, was second in 13:00.05 and Parker Wolfe third in 13:00.13.
The pace was honest rather than fast: 2:39.77 at 1000 m and 7:58.94 at 3000 m, then Biniam Mehary led through 4000 m in 10:33.25, Ky Robinson took a turn and Wolfe hit the front at the bell. Ingebrigtsen kept glancing back on the back straight for Hocker, who was stuck in traffic again.
It has been a short season for the Norwegian, who said afterwards he had barely raced. The title goes with his Olympic, two world and four European 5000 m golds, and with it comes 150,000 dollars, the prize for every individual winner here. He turns to the 1500 m on Sunday against Hocker and Josh Kerr. Wolfe said his legs were dead over the last 100 m and he had come to win.
A championship built around prize money opened with a race decided by one man's last 100 metres. Good start.
Sources: World Athletics; Athletics Weekly.
