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Cam Myers has long measured himself against Jakob Ingebrigtsen. This though was not the day to be compared to the Norwegian champion.
In his first major open-age championship race, Myers – the Australian teen prodigy – had a bad day. In an upset, he did not progress from his heat of the 1500m at the world athletics championships in Tokyo.
Cameron Myers did not advance past the heats of the 1500m at the world athletics championships in Tokyo.Credit: Getty Images
It was of no comfort to him that Ingebrigtsen, who has two Olympic gold medals, followed Myers’ lead in the very next heat, failing to go through to the semis.
The pair have been interconnected since the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne two years ago when Myers ran the quickest mile by a 16-year-old ever in the world. He was only the second 16-year-old to break the four-minute mile. Ingebrigtsen was the first. Myers was nine days older than Ingebrigtsen was when he did it, but he also ran two seconds quicker than Ingebrigtsen’s time.
Just as sprint sensation Gout Gout is regularly compared to Usain Bolt, that moment, coupled with his impressive trend since, has meant Myers often finds himself likened to Ingebrigtsen, albeit the Norwegian is still racing.
Ingebrigtsen is tattooed, pierced, has the coiffed hair and look of a boy-band singer and is unafraid of speaking his mind. He is a middle-distance rock star. But he had a shocker.
Myers tried to keep pace from the outside, but ended up finishing eighth in his heat.Credit: Getty Images
The man who has four world records, is a two-time Olympic gold medallist (one over 1500m, one over 5000m) and a two-time world 5000m champion. He has also won silver in the 1500m at the past two worlds but never gold.
Famously, he has previously won nearly every 1500m race in the lead-up to each worlds and spoken brashly of taking gold. Then he’s got to the worlds and been beaten. It is the medal that has eluded him, and will now stay off his CV for at least another two-year cycle.
The caveats: Ingebrigtsen has had an injury-interrupted year and was battling to be fit for Tokyo; Myers collapsed recently from dehydration after heading out on a run the day after a Diamond League meet in Poland without eating or drinking beforehand. He spent days in hospital.
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“Since Poland I have had a pretty rough run of it, obviously a couple of days in hospital. I came back and nothing has really clicked since then, I unfortunately got ill last week and haven’t had a very good run,” Myers said after finishing eighth in his heat with a time of 3.42:75.
“Everyone going into championships isn’t going to be 100 per cent.
“It’s obviously tactically a lot different,” he said of the step up from Diamond Leagues to senior championship racing.
“I just wasn’t able to execute a race like I normally execute. I went through 800[m], I should have been jogging, but I was struggling to run 64s – not even the pace that Jess (Hull) runs. There is obviously something wrong with my body at the moment, I just have to get that right.”
Myers’ personal best is 3:29.8. He was a long way from his best, but he was not alone. Eighth was the lowest Ingebrigtsen had finished on a track race since 2017.
Surprisingly, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen did not advance past the heats of the 1500m at the world championships. Credit: AP
Three 3:27 runners – Ingebrigtsen, Azeddine Habz, and Phanuel Koech – who are in the top five ranked runners in the world this year, and between them, have recorded three of the top-10 fastest times in history, all missed the semi-finals. Koech was clipped and fell on the final lap so may yet be allowed to advance.
Myers looked so good for half a race. Despite sitting three wide, he looked to be running smart and just keeping himself out of trouble albeit in a slow-paced race. But looks were deceiving, for, as he said, he was paddling hard to keep up.
Myers wasn’t picked for last year’s Paris Olympics team when arguably he should have been, if for no other reason than he would have got early exposure to the next level of elite competition. He consoled himself by going to world junior championships later in the year and winning a silver medal. But it’s a big step up from under-20 races to open-age world championships.
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Fitness issues, or concern at what is niggling in the background to sap him of energy, aside, this was always the stepping stone championships for Myers.
At 19, there was no expectation of him clinching a medal in his first experience of senior championships racing, But equally, it was not like he was without the expectation, by no one more than him, that he would make it out of the heats.
Even allowing for those tempered expectations, his first exposure at the level stung.
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