At 9.6 km, Ingebrigtsen graced a curve and ran into a picket fence and came close to falling. At 10 km which was passed in 27.27 (under the Norwegian record of 27.39 on the road) a finished Ingebrigtsen stopped and started to walk the streets of Copenhagen.
– I tried to go with the tight group as long as I could, but it went much too quickly. I was below the Norwegian 10 km road record and had to settle for that. My legs were too worn out and I wouldn’t have had a chance, I was also mentally worn out but it was a fun way to end the season, says Ingebrigtsen in the Copenhagen Half Marathon’s webcast, emphasizing that he was not at all prepared for the challenge in his first race at the distance. Came straight to the race from the 1500m victory in Brussels late last Friday night.
The 23-year-old star – who has Olympic gold medals in the 1,500m and 5,000m – made a bid to complete the race, but with no ambitions to be in the lead with world record holder Jacob Kiplimo and world champion Sabastian Sawe, and mixed running with walking.
Dramatic sprint for victory
Ingebrigtsen ran to the finish in 1.03.13 after the many breaks in the closing half. Thoroughly knocked out, he lay for a long time recovering on the asphalt.
The finish outside the Park was dramatic. Kiplimo chose the wrong path at a refug and had to switch to the path chosen by Sawe and lost. Sawe won in 58.05, a couple of seconds off the course record, while Kiplimo was second in 58.09 after 21,097.5 metres.
The race had an ambition to challenge Kiplimo’s world record of 57.31, but right from the start they lost quite a lot and the record was never in danger.