On the night before Sunday Norwegian time, he ran in the second preliminaries, and he was one of six straight through to the next step towards the final.

Ingebrigtsen took the lead after 400 meters and also led the race before he let a few people in front of him head to the finish line. Australia’s Stewart McSweyn won the heat at 3,34.91.

Ingebrigtsen had previously announced that he would only speak to NRK licensees after the race.

He almost kept his promise. Accompanied by the Norwegian Athletics Association’s media manager, Morten Olsen, the event quickly passed the press zone. To the Dagbladet team and TV 2, he showed his thumb and said «we’ll talk tomorrow».

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A few meters later he said to the Norwegian press writing department:

– This is good. It answered well in the last round, it came with a big smile around the mouth of the 21-year-old and the defending Olympic champion in the distance.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen said earlier that no one other than his life partner Elisabeth Asserson would be attending from the extended family.

But when Saturday came, Henrik Ingebrigtsen’s older brother was still in Eugene.

– He jumps «damn» fast. The first and second heats went faster than I thought. He provokes the easily provocative McSweyn, says brother Henrik Ingebrigtsen NRK.

Help

Henrik Ingebrigtsen had arrived in Eugene the day before to help Jakob.

– I’m here to help Jakob, said Ingebrigtsen’s brother.

The best six times, apart from the best six in each of the three innings, also made it to the semifinals on Monday night.

Australia’s Oliver Hoare won the first heat with 3.36.15.

Ferdinand Kvan Edman ran in the third and final qualifying round. There he ended up in 10th place at 3.39.92, and the World Cup ended for him.

The Heat were won by Josh Kerr of Great Britain with 3.38.94.

The final takes place on Wednesday night Norwegian time.