After suffering a crushing defeat in the 1,500-meter race four days prior, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the 5,000-meter event on the penultimate day of the World Athletics Championships on Sunday.
The 22-year-old beat Spain’s Mohamed Katir over the final 50 metres to win in 13 minutes 11.30 seconds despite this week’s illness. In 13:11.44, Katir earned the silver medal, and Jacob Krop of Kenya earned the bronze.
In a near exact replica of last year’s world championships in Eugene, where he lost to a British athlete named Jake Wightman, Ingebrigtsen was out-kicked by Josh Kerr in the 1,500m on Wednesday.
He patiently stayed near the back of the field until pushing up from fourth to second with 200 metres left in the oppressive heat and humidity of Budapest, and in a remarkable repeat performance of last year, he dug deep for the 5,000 victory on Sunday.
Ingebrigtsen only ran two 5,000 metres this season—his first was in the semifinals in Budapest—but he gave everyone notice that he was up to the challenge in June when he broke the 26-year-old world mark for the seldom- run two mile at the Paris Diamond League.