American Cole Hocker stuns favorites, wins Olympic gold in 1,500

SAINT-DENIS, France -- American Cole Hocker pulled the upset of the Olympic track meet Tuesday night, outracing favorites Jakob Ingebrigsten and Josh Kerr to the finish line in the 1,500 meters.

Hocker won the race in an Olympic-record 3 minutes 27.65 seconds, pulling from fifth to first over the final 300 meters to beat his personal best by more than 3 seconds and set an American record.

He beat Kerr by .14 seconds, while Ingebrigsten, who set the pace through the first 1,200 meters, ended up in fourth in a time faster than his Olympic record set in Tokyo.

American Yared Nuguse also set a personal best to win the bronze.

It was the first U.S. win in the metric mile since Matt Centrowitz took gold in 2016. This is the first time Americans put two men on the 1,500-meter podium since the Stockholm Games in 1912.

The race had been billed as a showdown between Ingebrigtsen and Kerr, with the Norwegian setting a hot pace as he led coming into the last 200.

Ingebrigtsen darted to the front quickly in this and ran there for the first 3 1/2 laps, while Kerr traded between second and third, getting ready for his typical windup and a potential slingshot past Ingebrigtsen over the closing stretch, much the way he did last year.

While that was playing out, Hocker, at 5-foot-9 1/2 and more than 3 1/2 inches shorter than the top two contenders, almost looked like he was trying to photo bomb the end of this race.

He snuck up on the inside once, only to have Ingebrigtsen block that move, then tried again, passed them both and crossed the line first, his arms outstretched and with a look of disbelief on his face.

Hocker, a 23-year-old product of University of Oregon, was listed as much as a 30-1 long shot for this race. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.