"I never thought I'd see a distance race being dominated by a non-african" - Justin Gatlin weighs in on Jakob Ingebrigtsen's 3000m world record

By Soumik Bhattacharya

Modified Sep 01, 2024 17:55 GMT

Track and field legend, Justin Gatlin showered praises on Jakob Ingebrigtsen for breaking the 3000m world record at the Silesia Diamond League. Competing in the second event after his successful outing at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Ingebrigtsen scripted history in Poland as he took just 7:17.55 to touch the finishing line in the 3000m distance event on August 25.

Owing to this performance, the Norwegian broke the 28-year-old standing world record in the 3000m event by Kenyan track and field athlete Daniel Komen (run time of 7:20.67 registered in 1996).

Following this performance by Ingebrigtsen, Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green shed light on the amazing performance by the 23-year-old in a recent episode (released on August 30, Friday) of the "Ready Set Go" podcast.

2004 Athens Olympic gold medalist, Gatlin remarked that Ingebrigtsen is one of the first non-African athletes to have produced dominating performances in long-distance events.

"I never thought I would see this day happen where a distance race is dominated by a non-African. There's an old saying, "All we need is one". Y'all can sweep from second position onwards you can have it but we got the No.1 spot." Gatlin said (at 47:30).

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Jakob Ingebrigtsen ends his 2024 Paris Olympic campaign with a gold medal

Jakob Ingebrigtsen at the Silesia Diamond League meet in Poland (Credits: Getty Images)

After clinching a gold medal in the 1500m event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics three years ago, Jakob Ingebrigtsen clinched a second Olympic gold at the French capital. The 23-year-old emerged victorious in the Men's 5000m event after registering a season-best run time of 13:13.66 in the event finals.

Even though the Norwegian was in a close contest with Kenya's Ronald Kwemoi, he capitalized on his run superbly to beat the Kwemoi by a margin of more than two seconds. The Kenyan took the silver medal with a run time of 13:15.04 while the United States of America's Grant Fisher clinched the bronze medal in 13:15.13.

Besides the 5000m event, Jakob Ingebrigtsen also competed in the Men's 1500m event along with his arch-rival Josh Kerr. However, the defending champion failed to clinch a medal in the event this time around and finished in fourth place with a run time of 3:28.24.

Kerr, on the other hand, clinched the silver medal in the event while the United States athlete, Cole Hocker, took home the gold medal after registering a run time of 3:27.65.