By Mitch Phillips
PARIS (Reuters) - Defending champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and world champion Josh Kerr are expected to have a battle royale in the Olympic 1,500 metres final, but it was something of a phoney war after they were drawn in the same semi-final on Sunday.
Briton Kerr moved to the front straight away, while Norway's Ingebrigtsen sat at the back during a very slow first lap, before he went from last to first to take it up.
Kerr sat on his shoulder from then until the finish line, both men looking supremely comfortable as Ingebrigtsen broke the tape in three minutes 32.38, with Kerr a pace behind.
Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler delivered an American 1-2 in the second heat, and will be joined in the final by Cole Hocker, while Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot, silver medallist in Tokyo and the 2019 world champion, had to work hard to snatch fifth place in his heat to qualify.
It is hard to look beyond the big two, however, in Tuesday's final, one of the most eagerly-awaited races of the Games
Ingebrigtsen looked supreme when he won in Tokyo but has been beaten in successive world finals, in identical race circumstances, by British duo Jake Wightman and Kerr.
Ingebrigtsen, the fourth-fastest man in history after his European record 3:26.73 last month, is seeking to match Briton Sebastian Coe as the only man to win two Olympic 1,500m titles.
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Ed Osmond)
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