Hocker cannot be persuaded he won’t win gold again in September’s World Championships at Tokyo.
EUGENE, Ore. — Cole Hocker has won exactly one 1,500-meter or mile race in the 361 days since his gold medal at the Paris Olympics. He is 1-8, and that win was in a trial heat.
Yet he cannot be persuaded he won’t win gold again in September’s World Championships at Tokyo.
That’s even after he finished third Saturday in the USA Championships. At least he fared better than two Olympians knocked out of the necessary top three.
Two other Hoosiers, former Indiana University steeplechaser Daniel Michalski and Pike High School graduate Lynna Irby-Jackson, also ran their way onto the world team.
Jonah Koech and Ethan Strand both beat Hocker in the 1,500 meters.
Koech climbed from seventh to first over the closing 400 meters, running that lap in 52.91 to break Hocker’s meet record with a time of 3:30.17. In the last few steps he overtook the 22-year-old Strand, who was second in 3:30.25.
Hocker, fifth with 100 meters left, clawed back to third in 3:30.37. Top three were under Hocker’s meet record of 3:30.59 from last year’s Olympic Trials.
“In a weird way – obviously, I got third today – that was easiest race I’ve run all season,” he said. “It comes down to that last 100 meters. I thought we could have been running 3:37.”
Stunningly left off the world team were Notre Dame graduate Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler, also a 22-year-old.
With 200 meters left, Nuguse was first and Kessler second. At Paris, they finished third and fifth, respectively. At Hayward Field, on this day, they were fourth (Kessler 3:31.12) and fifth (Nuguse 3:31.34).
Hocker, running on his college track, couldn’t replicate his wins from the 2021 and 2024 Olympic Trials. If this had been a world final, he said, he would have raced differently. He said he didn’t want to be out of the top three and thus did not take the lead early.
“You can only bide your time so long until it’s too late,” Hocker said.
He was “swallowed up” from 1,300 to 1,400, he said, in dropping from third to fifth. At Paris, he was trapped on the inside once but slipped through on the rail to set an Olympic record of 3:27.65.
“There’ll be a chance for me to go for the win again later this summer,” Hocker said.
Quality of the field was extraordinary. Eighth was NCAA champion Nathan Green of Washington, and his time of 3:33.25 would have been a meet record until 2024.
Strand, of North Carolina, became the fastest American collegian ever.
“No other country in the world has this kind of depth,” Hocker said.
So much so that the reigning Olympic champion was actually relieved to survive and advance. He will try to make the team at a second distance in Sunday’s 5,000.
The inaugural World Championships were in 1983, and the Olympic champion has never won the 1,500 at the subsequent worlds.
Michalski goes from Walmart to world stage
Olympic silver medalist Kenneth Rooks held off Michalski to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase, 8:26.58 to 8:26.77. Michalski, 29, is a father of three who delivered groceries for Walmart during the 2020 pandemic so he could support his family. He finished fourth at the 2021 Olympic Trials, missed the Paris team, but now trains in Provo, Utah, with Rooks and other BYU runners. He is supported by the Air Force’s World Class Athlete Program and was inspired by IU’s Andy Bayer, also a father when he made the 2019 world team in the steeple.
“So I did actually have a vision for someone at that age and stage, still doing it, doing it with a wife and children,” Michalski said. “I’m grateful for guys like that who figure it out.”
Irby-Jackson, who missed Paris after winning two relay medals at the 2021 Olympics, was fourth in the 400 meters in 50.06. She would have been third if winner Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone hadn’t switched from the 400 hurdles. Irby-Jackson, 26, a 12-time state champion, has returned to the sprint coach she had in college and now trains in Nashville, Tenn. She said she had mixed emotions.
“I know I’ve got it in me,” she said. “I know I’ve got that ‘dog’ in me. But the goal was obviously top three.”
Team USA could use her in the mixed or women’s 4×400 relays at Tokyo, or both.
In the women’s steeplechase, Notre Dame grad Olivia Markezich (fourth at the 2024 trials) was fifth in 9:14.26 and Butler grad Angelina Ellis of Zionsville eighth in 9:23.02.
Runners in Sunday’s 800 finals include Addy Wiley of Huntington and IU’s Camden Marshall of Corydon.
Contact David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
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