The double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen has issued a part-apology for calling his rivals “losers” and a “bunch of cowards” after a spicy men’s 1500m Diamond League final on Friday.
However, Ingebrigtsen has continued to maintain that he was still right to accuse the Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker of cowardice – because he asked for a strong pace and swapped in his own pacemaker only to then hide behind others in the race.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Ingebrigtsen, who finished fourth behind Australia’s Cameron Myers in a tight finish in 3min 30.52sec, said: “I shouldn’t have called anyone losers. I apologise for that. It was beneath me, regardless of the adrenaline and emotions. But I stand by what I said about Cole and his team acting cowardly.
“They told the other athletes and the organisers that they were targeting a specific pace and were bringing in their own pacemaker to set that pace, but then they did something completely different.
“When you promise the crowd a fast race, you have a responsibility to follow through – at least in my view. This isn’t about me losing. I wasn’t good enough. It’s about taking responsibility for the commitments you’ve made to the meeting organisers, the crowd and your competitors.”
Ingebrigtsen, who returned to racing in August after 11 months out after an achilles sheath injury, ended up following the pacemakers himself after no one else went with them.
But despite running a season’s best time, he was bluntly honest about his “shitty, terrible and extremely disappointing” run afterwards – before criticising his fellow racers.
On Saturday Ingebrigtsen insisted that he had talked to Hocker afterwards and the matter was settled. However the row flared up again when Hocker’s agent Ray Flynn accused Ingebrigtsen of whining.
“Jakob now appears as a whiny runner who blames others,” Flynn wrote in an email to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. “It is embarrassing to see a great champion complain and blame other runners when he doesn’t win. It is completely disrespectful to his competitors, who now regularly beat him in the 1500 metres.”
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However Ingebrigtsen said that his broader comments were good for the sport as he returned fire on Flynn.
“Cole and I talked it through after the race,” the Norwegian added. “As far as we’re concerned, the matter is settled, so I don’t really understand why his agent is getting involved in all of this now. If you’re not allowed to show a bit of passion after a race, you should find a sport that doesn’t want an audience.”
The pair could renew acquaintances next week at the Ultimate Championships in Budapest, when Ingebrigtsen is down to run the 1500m and 5,000m. However, according to Dagbladet, the Norwegian is now likely just to focus on the 5,000m.