How Yared Nuguse delivered a first Diamond League 1500m defeat for Jakob Ingebrigtsen in three years

The name’s Nuguse, Yared Nuguse.

The Zurich Diamond League closed with an unconventional lap of honour: by car.

Nuguse stood up, poking through the sunroof of a white BMW and waved to the crowd, 1500m trophy in hand, as Diamonds Are Forever played throughout the stadium.

The music was a nod to the league name, but the James Bond film fits as a metaphor for the all-action men’s 1500m.

In that film, Bond has to break into a diamond smuggling ring to uncover a plot by his old enemy, who is set to destroy Washington DC.

Well, switch Bond, Washington and diamonds for Nuguse, Brussels and bronze. He was third in the 1500m Olympic final in Paris, and his win in Zurich seals his place at the Diamond League finals in the Belgian capital next weekend.

If any track and field athlete is typecast as the Bond villain, it’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen: a Le Chiffre-style (yes, fine, that’s Casino Royale) who is clean-cut, sharp-talking and fast-racing.

Ingebrigtsen always wins in the Diamond League. The Norwegian might have lost three global 1500m finals in as many years, but on the ‘circuit’, with one-off races rather than rounds, and with pacemakers and wavelights (not allowed at Championships), he’s hard to get near.

In fact, this was his first Diamond League loss over 1500m in three years, having won his last nine, including a 3:26.73 European record in Monaco in July. His last defeat? Zurich, in 2021.

Even if Ingebrigtsen had a cold — and he made sure to mention it pre-race — Nuguse’s win was a balance of fitness and patience. “After running 3:27 at the Olympics, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s the real peak’, but it still feels good to come and run like sub 3:30 in races like this,” he said.

His 3:29.21 was, in terms of splits, almost identical to the Paris final, save for the last lap. Ingebrigtsen hit the front early, sitting off the pacemakers, in what was targeted (with the wavelights), at world-record pace (3:26.00).

Nuguse spent the first 800m in fourth, with the field quickly strung out. As they hit the two-lap mark, the front four were the same from the Olympic final, just in reverse order: Ingebrigtsen, Nuguse, Josh Kerr, Cole Hocker. It wasn’t tactically complex, verging on pure time trial.

By 1000m, a gap had opened between Kerr in third and Ingebrigtsen and Nuguse. It never closed. The pacemakers dropped out and it left the American in a shootout with Ingebrigtsen. This was the difference from the Olympic final, where six men hit the bell (last lap) inside 2:49 — only Nuguse and Ingebrigtsen managed that in Zurich.

Nuguse stayed on the shoulder well into the home straight, sliding out into lane two and closing the final 100m in 13.1 seconds. Only Reynold Cheruiyot (12.9s), who finished sixth, finished faster.

That race pattern was, for 1400m, a replication of the way Nuguse used Ingebrigtsen as a de facto pacemaker in the 2023 Bowerman Mile, and the pair were split from the rest of the field by 800m. Then, Nuguse ran an American record and the fourth-fastest time ever (3:43.97), going through 1500m in 3:29.20, but was beaten by Ingebrigtsen, who went third all-time.

Last season, 2023, was about times for Nuguse. He took almost 10 seconds off his 3000m and mile personal bests, ran the second-fastest indoor mile ever (3:47.38) and cut more than four seconds from his 1500m best. Last year, 3:29 had been a personal best and an American record.

This year has been about recognition. Sure, he won two Diamond Leagues in 2023, but they were the two Ingebrigtsen was not at, including the Zurich meet. “To be able to come away with the win here and defend my title has been really, really huge,” said Nuguse.

His win this time was less dramatic than the Zurich meet last year, where Kerr led almost the entire race, Nuguse was fourth at the bell and closed hard to beat Kerr with a dip on the line.

Recognition comes best in wins and medals. Nuguse’s bronze in Paris meant USA, with Hocker taking gold, had multiple Olympic 1500m men’s medals for the first time in 112 years. It makes it two medals from two Championships in 2024, with Nuguse earning world indoor 3000m silver in March. He was fifth at the bell (200m left, a shorter track indoors) but closed exceptionally to dip ahead of Selemon Barega.

Nuguse publicly stated hopes of medalling in his debut World Championships, in Budapest last summer, but finished fifth in the 1500m final. He qualified for the Tokyo Olympics but did not compete due to injury. Being a quick learner is just as important as being fast in global finals.

The hardest part of Nuguse’s style, finishing with a flourish, is that it is — psychologically as much as physically — less suited to faster races. Not only does he have to be fitter than ever before, but execute races better more often.

Kerr outkicked him for the world 3000m title in March, Hocker beat him late in US Olympic trials, and ran a trials record (3:30.6) when Nuguse ran from the front. Earlier this week, Elliot Giles broke the world road mile record in a sprint finish against Nuguse.

Those examples are becoming exceptions, not the rule. Over 1500m, Nuguse’s head-to-heads are strong: 4-0 versus Giles, 9-4 against Hocker and tied 3-3 in races with Kerr. Having been beaten by Ingebrigtsen in their first six 1500m races, Nuguse has now won the last two.

If the Ingebrigtsen-Kerr dynamic is fuelled by verbal warfare, then Nuguse and Hocker joining Kerr in signing to Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track League can only elevate the men’s 1500m to bigger heights.

They are contracted to race four times a year, competing in 800m and 1500m races, with performances combined.

Nuguse would make a terrible Bond. He plays the violin, calls himself a nerd and studied biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame. He’s got a pet tortoise named after the chemical element tyrosine.

“I wasn’t really into track at all when I was growing up,” said Nuguse with a laugh. “I really only got into it in 2020, after I made the Olympics in Tokyo. That was when I started being like, ‘Oh, there’s other track going on, you know?’”

Nuguse can’t ignore “other track” now, and the sport can’t ignore him either. Next week, Nuguse will go to Brussels for the Diamond League final, an event which athletes spend all season qualifying for but comes down to a Championship-style one-off race.

Ingebrigtsen has taken the 1500m crown (it was a mile last year) for the past two seasons. Diamonds might be forever, but Nuguse knows medals are too.

(Header photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)