Hocker Sails To Victory In Final 100 Meters For Second Global Gold; Jefferson-Wooden, Lyles, McLaughlin-Levrone Add Golds With Relays Wins

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Logan Hannigan-Downs Photos

TOKYO – After Cole Hocker was hit with a disqualification in the 1,500 meters, he didn’t speak to the media, unplugged from social media and surrounded himself with family. He didn’t even watch the final live.

“I just focused on myself,” Hocker said.

Sunday night at Japan National Stadium, the final night of the nine-day World Athletics Championships, Hocker re-emerged.

The race played right into his hands and rounding the final turn, Hocker accelerated off the final curve, passed Isaac Kimeli of Belgium and he won his second global gold medal with a stunning victory in the 5,000 meters.

Hocker became the third American to win a global championship in the 5,000 meters, following Bob Schul in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games and Bernard Lagat in the 2007 World Championships.

Nico Young placed sixth and Grant Fisher was eighth. The Americans controlled the pace of the race until the final 800 meters when it started to ramp up.

After the 5,000 meters, the skies opened and it started pouring rain.

The United States closed the meet on track with a gold rush, winning three of four relays.

That gave the U.S. a record 15 gold medals and a total of 26.

Botswana’s 400-meter gold medalist Busang Collen Kebinatshipi overtook Rai Benjamin of the U.S. just ahead of the finish line and won the men’s 4x400 relay by .07 seconds in 2:57.76.

Sunday morning, the U.S. needed to win a run-off in the 4x400 against Kenya in order to earn a lane in the final. The U.S. handily beat Kenya and then used four new runners in the final: Vernon Norwood, Jacory Patterson, Khaleb McRae and Benjamin.

In 24 hours, the U.S. went from placing sixth in hits heat and seemingly out of it, to taking silver in an entertaining final.

The U.S. women followed, with Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone making an encore appearance on the anchor leg of the 4x400 and splitting 47.68. The U.S. team of Isabella Whittaker, Lynna Irby-Jackson, Aaliyah Butler and McLaughlin-Levrone ran a championship record time of 3:16.81.

Despite the rain shower, the U.S. got the stick around cleanly in both 4x100 relays and won gold in both the men’s and women’s finals.

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won her third gold medal of this year’s World Championships as Sha’Carri Richardson took the baton on the anchor leg and was able to hold off the Jamaicans, 41.75 to 41.79.

In the final event on the track, the U.S. men won their second consecutive world title in the 4x100 relay in 37.29 with Noah Lyles on the anchor. Lyles also won three medals, including gold in the 200 and bronze in the 100.

In the women’s 800 meters final, Kenya’s Lilian Odira ran a championship record time of 1:54.62 in a fast race that also saw Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter-Bell out lean her teammate and Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson, 1:54.90 to 1:54.91.

Odira's victory completed a sweep of every gold medal from 800 meters to the marathon for the Kenyan women.

American Sage Hurta-Klecker placed fifth in 1:55.89 for another personal best and moved to No. 3 on the all-time U.S. list behind Athing Mu and Ajee Wilson.

The men’s decathlon podium was a reprise of the 2022 NCAA Championships. Germany's Leo Neugebauer managed to passed Kyle Garland with a strong final attempt in the javelin and then ran fast enough in the 1,500 meters to avoid being overtaken by Ayden Owens-Delerme of Puerto Rico.

Neugebauer scored 8,804 points to defeat Owens-Delerme by 20 points. Garland won his first global medal, bronze, with 8,703.

Owens-Delerme said injuries and other frustrations had him on the brink of leaving the sport and taking the MCAT to begin his medical career. But he stuck with it and won three of the four running events on the way to a national record score of 8,784.

The rain impacted the women’s high jump and men’s discus.

The women endured a short delay before Nicola Olyslagers of Australia defeated Poland’s Maria Zodzik for the gold with a winning height of 2.00m. Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh took the bronze with 1.97m.

The men’s discus ring became dangerously slippery in the rain and didn’t even begin until the rest of the meet, and the closing ceremony, were finished.

The throwers finally got started more than an hour after the last relay race.

Daniel Stahl of Sweden caught a big throw in the sixth round that traveled 70.47m.

That throw overtook Mykolas Alekna, the world record holder from Lithuania, who led throughout and finished with silver and a best of 67.84m. Alex Rose of Samoa, whose previous best at a global championship was eighth, threw 66.96m for the bronze medal.