Olympic Champion Cole Hocker Wins 5K At The World Championships

1500-meter Olympic champion Cole Hocker made sure to leave his mark in Tokyo at the World Athletics Outdoor Track and Field Championships after he was disappointingly disqualified from the 1500 meters earlier this week. Hocker ran 12:58.30 in the 5K to win his first-ever world title.

Hocker is the first American since Bernard Lagat in 2007 to win gold in the 5K at the world championships. After racing, NBC’s Lewis Johnson asked Hocker if he knew that he had achieved such an accomplishment. The newly crowned world champion was stunned but also honored to join the history books alongside one of the greatest American distance runners to ever live.

Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli earned silver, running 12:58.78 for a season’s best. Kimeli was the top time qualifier going into the 5K final. The last time Kimeli qualified for a world championship final was 2019. However, he did place 8th at the Olympics last summer. Based on his progressions, the Belgian 10k road national record holder was due for some championship hardware.

Bronze went to France’s Jimmy Gressier, running 12:59.33 to round out the podium. Gressier is the French national record holder for the indoor 5K and outdoor 3K. Earlier this week, Gressier added a gold medal in the 10K to his growing resume. Gressier had never qualified for an outdoor world championship final before this week.

Grant Fisher, one of America’s most formidable distance athletes, placed 8th in 13:00.55. Fisher won two bronze medals in the Olympics last year in the 10k and 5k. Earlier this year, he broke the indoor world record for the 3k. Despite this year’s success, the U.S. champion was unable to podium in the 10k and 5k at these championships.

Nico Young, another American predicted for medal contention, placed 6th in 13:00.07.

Four-time world record holder and two-time Olympic and world champion Jakob Ingebrigsten finished in 10th, which is monumental considering his transparency about a recurring achilles injury that had stopped him from competing for most of the season.

How Cole Hocker Pulled Off One Of The Biggest Distance Upsets Of The Year

As previously mentioned, Hocker was disqualified for jostling during the 1500-meter semi-finals. The Olympic champion impeded another athlete as he attempted to create space for himself to move through his competitors and reach the finish line. Unfortunately, his attempt cost him a chance at earning a world championship medal in his specialty event.

As most track and field athletes understand, if one race doesn’t go well, they must find it within themselves to focus on the next event and execute to the best of their ability. Hocker is a textbook example of how athletes manage emotions to maximize their next best chances at success.

Failing to earn the 1500-meter title didn’t stop Hocker from eyeing his next big prize. The Olympic champion is vocal about his thoughts on the 5K and how he knows it’s not his best event. However, when I spoke to him at the U.S. Championships, he knew that there is always an opportunity to win if the race is run a specific way.

“Don’t let it go slow if I’m in the race,” said Hocker.

In distance running, some athletes opt to execute a more tactical race where the competition is less focused on how fast they can go and more focused on how they can outsmart and outrun their competition with various race strategies.

At the U.S. championships, Hocker was very close to not making Team USA in his premier event, the 1500 meters. He was boxed in until the last minute but managed to push his way into third to secure the final team spot. Later on in the championships, Hocker managed to take down Fisher and Young in the 5K, America’s best runners in the event. Since the race was a lot more tactical, Hocker was able to find himself on top of the U.S. podium.

Hocker was in 12th place during today’s final as they came into the final lap. The newly crowned world champion relied on his infamous kick to pick off everyone in the field one by one.

From the top of the U.S. podium to the top of the world podium in his secondary event, Hocker is continuing to solidify his dominant American distance legacy.

Last year, Cole became one of only four American men in history to win the 1500-meter Olympic title. This year, he joins only Lagat as one of the two American men to win the world title in the 5K.

“That’s an incredible stat,” Hocker told NBC after competition. “ Bernard Lagat is one of those athletes that I watch his races all the time, and it’s someone that [was so] dominant in the 1500 and so good in the 5K and really someone I’ve been chasing my whole career.”