Cole Hocker stuns Kerr and Ingebrigtsen to win shock Olympic 1500m gold

For the hardest three laps of his life, Cole Hocker clung on with stubbornness of a mule. Then he kicked like one.

They called Marvin Hagler’s extraordinary fight with Tommy Hearns, The War. This men’s Olympic 1500m final was the track and field equivalent – with a twist that nobody expected. It came from the 23-year-old Hocker, who swooped late to take a shock gold in the final few metres.

Until that moment, Britain’s Josh Kerr must have thought he was winning an Olympic title. For most of the race he tracked his great Norwegian rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen, before striking for home in the final straight.

But Hocker was right behind both men, and timed his surge to perfection to overtake Kerr on the inside and come home in 3min 27.65sec, shattering his personal best by over three seconds to win gold.

Kerr had to settle for silver, with Hocker’s US teammate Yared Nuguse picking up the bronze ahead of Ingebrigtsen in fourth.