The Norwegian teenager beat two Olympic medallists in his season opener in California.
Racing against some of the best middle-distance runners in the sport, Jakob Ingebrigtsen was the star at the Payton Jordan Invitational in Stanford, California on Thursday night (May 3).
The talented 17 year-old, brother of Henrik and Filip Ingebrigtsen, ran a personal best 3:39.06 to take victory ahead of USA Olympic and world medalist Paul Chelimo and reigning Olympic 1500m champion Matt Centrowitz in the 1500m race.
Chelimo finished second in 3:40.16, Eric Jenkins was third in 3:40.28, while Centrowitz was only sixth in 3:40.74.
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Ingebrigtsen, who spoke to Fast Running last year about his family, goals and aspirations, ran a final lap of 55.24 making the decisive move with 200m to go and passed Chelimo before opening up a gap that only grew as he went on to achieve the qualifying standard for this summer’s European Championships.
Big win for @JakobIng at Payton Jordan! pic.twitter.com/hzSppAkj2v
— FloTrack (@FloTrack) May 4, 2018
That wasn’t the only success for the family, with older brother Henrik running a big personal best 13:16.97 to take victory in the 5000m and an early season world-leading time.
Britain’s Chris Thompson was also competing in the 5000m and finished 11th in 13:25.29.
After an impressive cross country season and on the road, Ben Connor took nine seconds from his 10,000m best clocking 28:14.56 to finish 11th as Shadrack Kipchirchir took the win in 27:39.65.
Connor was named in the GB team this week for the European 10,000m Cup which is incorporated into the the Highgate Harriers’ Night of 10,000m PBs later this month.