Four-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson previews the 1500m final with Josh Kerr taking centre-stage
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I love rivalries. I think it raises everybody's games and I think it gets fans more engaged.
00:08Why are we so engrossed by rivalries?
00:10Rivalries are great. Rivalries are fun because people want to pick a side.
00:15And when you've got a rivalry, you've got somebody saying, this is my guy, this is my girl.
00:19Somebody saying, your guy, your girl sucks, you know, and they want their person. And yeah,
00:24and it just becomes a great debate. Right now, you got, yeah, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr.
00:31You got Noah Lyles versus the Jamaicans. Noah Lyles versus Fred Curley. Noah Lyles versus
00:37the world. Noah Lyles versus the NBA. I mean, you got all of this stuff, right?
00:42I think when you have rivalry, it makes you better. I mean,
00:46I was better when Frankie Fredericks was there because I know that he's going to make me raise
00:50my game. Thank you. Tonight's 1500 meter men's final, who are Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen?
01:01Jakob Ingebrigtsen, one of the greatest distance runners we've seen. He's not afraid to talk.
01:06He likes to put himself in the spotlight and he delivers. He's Jakob. Josh is no-nonsense,
01:12not afraid to race, not afraid of the rivalry, not afraid to state his goals. Jakob says things,
01:20I think sometimes for effect. Josh is like, I don't need to say anything for effect. I'll just
01:24tell you what I'm thinking, which is that I'm just going to clobber whoever is out there. If
01:28that's Jakob, I'm going to kick his ass. That's just, that's who I am. That's what I believe. And
01:33that's what I'm going to do. And you can't get much better than that.
01:37Does somebody have the edge over the other tonight?
01:40I don't think either one has an advantage over the other. I think they both have different
01:44advantages. Jakob comes into this with the fastest time in the world this year,
01:49which is an advantage. His disadvantage is that he's lost the last two world championships to
01:55Brits. Josh is world champion, beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the world championships last
02:02year in the 1500. The disadvantage, if there is one, is that he hasn't run as fast this year.
02:09So I think that it sets up the best sort of situation where there's advantages and disadvantages
02:14for both. And we're going to see how those play out.
02:18The final is happening in just a few hours. How does the race unfold tonight? We're giving you
02:2315.00 seconds on the clock. On your marks, get set.
02:28I almost false started. I literally almost false started. I was like...
02:33On your mark, set, go!
02:36All right. I think there's going to be a little cat and mouse between Jakob and
02:39Josh at the very beginning. And then what we're going to watch for is somebody trying
02:43to mix up the pace and try to mix it up a little bit. Throw somebody off their game.
02:48Bell lap. At the bell, it's just going to be all out, just a race. I almost got there.
02:53I almost got it. That was tight. That was on it.
02:56Almost. All right, cool.