Jakob Ingebrigtsen fresh off his gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics, had a rough debut at the Copenhagen Half Marathon. Despite an incredible season, the 23-year-old hit a wall after 10 kilometers and ended up finishing 34th. He’s never been short on confidence—he’s even said he wants to break world records from 1,500m to the marathon—but this race didn’t go as planned. After 13.1 miles, he was flat on his back, clearly feeling the strain from the unexpected result.

Norway’s Olympic 5,000m champion, Ingebrigtsen known for his heated rivalry with Britain’s Josh Kerr, hit a wall after 10km during the Copenhagen Half Marathon. He briefly walked before struggling to the finish in 63 minutes and 13 seconds. In contrast, Sabastian Sawe won the race in a thrilling sprint finish, clocking 58 minutes and 5 seconds, narrowly beating world-record holder Jacob Kiplimo.

After the race, he said, “21km is definitely too long. I’m definitely not going to try again for a couple of years. It was fun but tough.” However, also, he just clinched the Diamond League 1500-meter championship, in Brussels on Friday.

He clocked at a time of 3:30.37 to clinch the win while successfully fending off Timothy Cheruiyot who completed the race in 3:30.93. Back to the Brussels race, he had never tried running a distance beyond 20 kilometers before. During a recent competition race, even Sebastian Saw acknowledged that Brussels was challenging for him; however, he also mentioned that Ingebrigtsen might have pushed himself hard for this particular event.

He didn’t train specifically for the half marathon. Well, he began swiftly with his brother Filip guiding him along and even broke a 10km record by clocking in at 27 minutes and 27 seconds initially. However after that things took a turn, for the worse—he spent 16 minutes to finish the next 5km. Fellow runners were caught off guard seeing him stroll and acknowledge the spectators; some thought he had given up. He felt a mix of nerves and anticipation as he prepared to push himself in the race. Despite this, he was excited to challenge himself over the longer distances!

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, biting off more than he could chew

This year Jakob Ingebrigtsen saw the marathon as his preferred distance and even went so far as to label himself as the best runner globally. He eagerly anticipated challenging himself in Copenhagen. He mentioned he was excited to test his abilities in a half marathon, for the time. He explained that while this distance usually complements his training regimen well; given his focus, on the 1500m race this season it would be thrilling to see if he could successfully complete the course. However, despite his high hopes, he struggled to keep up with the elite half-marathoners.

When looking at how he did, in comparison to his competitor Josh Kerr’s performance in the marathon debut in San Diego back in 2022. It’s interesting to note that Kerr was 32 seconds slower initially but managed to improve significantly the next year with a time of 62 minutes and 45 seconds. On the other hand, during that period Mo Farah triumphed in his marathon debut in New Orleans with a time of 60 minutes and 59 seconds and later on achieved an even better time of 59 minutes and 7 seconds during the Great North Run, in 2019. It’s fascinating to witness track athletes exploring race distances these days, isn’t it? Let’s root, for Jakob Ingebrigts to find more success!