Jakob Ingebrigtsen looks set to defend his 1500/3000m at the European Indoor Championships finals on Sunday but his rivals are plotting big to try stop him.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen is firmly on course for European Indoors double, but British athlete James West insists the field will try to rough him up a bit in the 3000m final on Sunday.
Ingebrigtsen was in his element on Saturday, qualifying easily during the heats and booked his place in the March 9 finals in the Netherlands. Ingebrigtsen looks unstoppable in his pursuit of a third consecutive 1500m/3000m double at the European Indoor Championships.
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West maintained that the rest of the field can’t fall into the trap of giving the Norwegian too much respect in Sunday’s 3000m final in Apeldoorn.
New Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy has handed a lifeline to the South African-based defender after including him in his squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
“If you want to compete for the medals, you really need to not give him too much respect. I think that’s what happened in the 1500m final – there was complete respect for Jakob and everyone just followed,” West told Athletics Weekly.
“The 3000m is probably going to be very similar and he’s going to be very hard to stop but we’ve got to try and rough him up a bit – it’s his fourth race in four days so we’ll see what we can do.”
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Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy has joined the list of highest paid Africa national team coaches but he still does not compare to many others on the continent.
George Mills on his part said anything is possible in the finals and is looking forward to give his best. “Anything is possible. That’s what I’m looking forward to,” Mills said.
Ingebrigtsen was a commanding winner of the 1500m on Friday night and waited until the latter stages of the second 3000m heat to surge from the back of the field to the front, winning it in 7:55.32 as he saluted the crowd in the closing metres before making a mock dip for the line. All of the above was designed to send out a message to the competition.
In the men’s 60m heats, British indoor champion Jeremiah Azu was fastest overall with 6.58, a time matched by the personal best of Hungary’s Dominik Illovszky.
The fastest man in the field going into these championships, Sweden’s 2023 European bronze medallist Henrik Larsson, progressed with a run of 6.59, while a season’s best of 6.60 took Britain’s Andrew Robertson through. He was joined by John Otugade, making his British senior debut, with 6.63.
