Jake Wightman claims World Championship gold in biggest win of his career
Great Britain’s Jake Wightman claimed a stunning 1500m gold medal at the World Championships.
The 28-year-old won in three minutes 29.23 seconds ahead of Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Spain’s Mohamed Katir on Tuesday night in Eugene.
Wightman was already the fastest man this year and went for the win with 200m to go.
Ingebrigtsen was unable to react and the Nottingham-born athlete held on to take the biggest win of his career.
Dad and coach Geoff is the stadium announcer at Hayward Field and commentated in his son winning gold.
He said: “Running is coming home. Wow. That is my son, I coach him and he is the world champion.”
Wightman has previously won European and Commonwealth bronze and only came 10th at last year’s Olympics in Tokyo.
Following his victory, Wightman said he was still trying to wrap his head around the achievement.
“It probably won’t sink in until I have retired I don’t think,” he said.
“It’s mad. I had such a disappointing year in Tokyo last year. I don’t think people realise how crushing it was to go in with such high expectations and come away hoping for a medal but end up tenth.
“I just knew coming here I had to take the pressure off and the only thing that could happen was that it was a better run than last year.
“I got a whiff of it on the last lap. I knew if I was there with 200m to go I could put myself in a position to win it and I was running for my life on that home straight.
“I have given up so much to get to this point and it makes everything worth it.”
Teammate Josh Kerr tried to set the tone ahead of the final by winning his semi-final, admitting he did not need to but it was “fun”.
But the 24-year-old was unable to threaten the medal positions and missed out on being able to add to last year’s Olympic bronze to finish fifth.
Published: by Radio NewsHub