Geordie Beamish of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, pulled off an unimaginable upset to take gold within the males’s 1,500m on the ultimate day of competitors on the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
Beamish was not anticipated to win, with the 1,500m not being his important occasion. Nevertheless, he bided his time and entered the ultimate lap in eighth place earlier than surging down the ultimate straight to turn out to be New Zealand’s first world indoor champion within the 1,500m occasion, clocking a private finest of three:36.54.
“I trusted my closing pace towards anybody,” mentioned Beamish to Canadian Working post-race.
Cole Hocker and Hobbs Kessler of Group USA claimed silver and bronze, respectively, with occasions of three:36.69 and three:36.72.
The door was open for a brand new champion within the males’s 1,500m with the absence of Jakob Ingebrigtsen as a result of damage and reigning world (out of doors) champion Josh Kerr, who ran and gained the three,000m distance as an alternative.
When requested if Beamish would run the 1,500m in Paris as an alternative of the steeplechase, he declined. “I don’t assume I can run a 1,500m in 3:29,” he mentioned. “I benefit from the steeple so much, and I feel I’ve my finest likelihood to medal in that occasion.”
“I’m positively disenchanted… it’s at all times powerful while you step as much as the following degree. I felt I used to be actually to do one thing particular as we speak and that wasn’t the case.”
Kieran Lumb 🇨🇦 on his Thirteenth-place efficiency within the males’s 1,500m closing.#WICGlasgow24 pic.twitter.com/beLwf4dudm
— Canadian Working (@CanadianRunning) March 3, 2024
Vancouver’s Kieran Lumb completed Thirteenth within the 1,500m closing. “I’m disenchanted,” says Lumb. “I felt I used to be going to actually do one thing particular as we speak, and that wasn’t the case.”
Beamish’s medal capped off a day to recollect for New Zealand after Hamish Kerr earlier gained gold within the excessive bounce. The small Oceanic island nation completed with 4 medals (two gold, two silver), their most ever at an indoor world championship.
Within the girls’s 1,500m closing, it was Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu who got here out on high in a time of 4:01.46. That is Hailu’s first world title. Her finest end earlier than Glasgow was a fourth-place end on the Tokyo Olympics in the identical occasion. Individuals Nikki Hiltz and Emily MacKay ran private bests to win silver and bronze. Canada’s Lucia Stafford completed eleventh in 4:08.90.
