Day 2 Morning: Norwegian Star One Of Several First Round Casualties In 1,500; Brooke Andersen Suffers Another NM Round In Hammer Qualifying; Susanna Sullivan And Jessica McClain Take Fourth And Eighth In Surprising Marathon

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Logan Hannigan-Downs photos

TOKYO – The last time Jakob Ingebrigtsen competed at Japan National Stadium, he won the Olympic gold medal in the 1,500 meters.

That was 2021. On Sunday, on day two of the World Athletics Championships, Ingebrigtsen made his first racing appearance of 2025 and finished eighth in his first round heat and was eliminated. Sixth or better would have been enough to make it through.

It was a shocking turn of events for one of the world’s most successful racers.

“I gave it my best today. It just wasn’t enough. I knew this could happen. But giving up isn’t in my nature,” Ingebrigtsen said.

Cole Hocker, the reigning Olympic champion, won his heat in 3:41.88, cruising in the final 600 in 1:19.61.

Ethan Strand finished third in his heat, behind Narve Gilje Nordas of Norway and Josh Kerr of Great Britain.

Third American Jonah Koech made it through, as well, with fourth place in his heat.

Two more casualties of the first round were 18-year-old Phanuel Koech of Kenya, ranked fourth in the world, who suffered a fall and couldn’t recover. Kenya appealed to try and get him reinstated, but it was denied.

Azzedine Habz of France, ranked fifth int the world, was seventh and missed advancing by a quarter second.

Americans Susanna Sullivan and Jessica McClain both finished in the top eight of the women’s marathon, which began at 7:30 a.m. local time.

Sullivan was 54 seconds away from the bronze medalist, Julia Paternain of Uruguay.

Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya won by two seconds over Tigst Assefa, 2:24:43 to 2:24:45. Jepchirchir is an Olympic gold medalist and Assefa once held the world record.

By contrast, Sullivan, a 35-year-old math teacher, didn’t make the NCAA team while she was at Notre Dame.

And Paternain, who ran for Penn State and Arkansas, finished 22nd in the NCAA 5,000 meters in 2019. She ran her first marathon in April.

Third American Erika Kemp finished 52nd.

In the women’s hammer, DeAnna Price safely qualified for the final, but disaster struck again for 2022 world champion Brooke Andersen. For the second year in a row at a major event, she fouled three times.

In 2024, Andersen’s three fouls came at the U.S. Olympic Trials. On Sunday, they prevented her from making it out of the qualifying round.

Rachel Richeson had a tough outing as well and had one legal mark out of three tries, placing 13th in Group B.

Fourth American Janee’ Kassanavoid did make the cut, so the U.S. will have two throwers in the finals.

In the women’s 100 meters hurdles first round, all three Americans safely advanced to the semifinal round. Olympic champion Masai Russell won the first of six heats in 12.53 seconds.

Danielle Williams of Jamaica ran 12.40 for the fastest time of the first round in heat two and Alaysha Johnson of the U.S. was second in 12.76.

Grace Stark won heat five in 12.46.

There are finals Sunday night in the men's and women's 100 meters, women's long jump, women's discus and men's 10,000 meters.