Championship racing can sometimes be predictable. Other times, it can be complete chaos.
Saturday’s outcome in the men’s 1500-meter final at the USATF Outdoor Championships at Hayward Field certainly was more of the latter, as it offered an outcome almost no one expected, with early favorites such as reigning Olympic bronze medalist Yared Nuguse and Olympian Hobbs Kessler coming up short down the stretch.
The end result was a surprising—but well-earned—win by 28-year-old Jonah Koech, a former 800-meter specialist who claimed his first national title in 3:30.17. A Kenyan by birth who reclassified to represent the U.S. in 2021, he qualified for his first American team in 2022 in the 800-meters.
On Saturday—if you can believe it—Koech said he was only 75-percent healthy and was dealing with a hamstring issue.
“These guys, it wasn’t their day today,” said Koech, who was fifth in the men’s 800-meter final at the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2024. “It was my day. Don’t think that those guys are not in shape. They’re in good shape. But it was just an opportunity for me to come up.”
Koech hadn’t run the 1500 meters that much prior to his outing at USAs. He had done so just over a handful of times since 2021. But this season, he knocked off six seconds from his career-best time from a year ago, running a 3:31 in May at the Rabat Diamond League.
“I don’t know what to say,” Koech said. “Everyone is beatable. I’m beatable, so everyone’s beatable.”
Then there was newly-minted professional Ethan Strand, fresh off a successful collegiate career with the University of North Carolina, who nearly stole the show, finishing second overall in 3:30.25. It was nearly a three-second personal best. He was among a group of recent collegians looking to make their mark in a major qualifying window.
“I think I had to use a lot of energy going into the backstretch to get myself in position, and I went a little too early, but I’m strong enough right now that I got to the finish line in the top three,” said Strand, who won an NCAA indoor title at 3,000 meters in 2025. “I definitely went for the win.”
Meanwhile, Cole Hocker, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist and U.S. record-holder at 1500 meters, managed to nab the final ticket to the World Championships in Tokyo, surging down the stretch and claiming a third-place finish in 3:30.37.
While the effort ensured Hocker, the reigning U.S. Olympic Trials champion, would return to a major championship and get a chance to secure another global title, the finish still left questions for the 24-year-old, who has yet to win a 1500-meter race in 2025.
Then there was the final outcome. It reaffirmed a shift taking place at the 1500-meter distance over the last year. Prior to Hocker’s meet record of 3:30.59 a year ago, the former mark was 3:34.09. In the first round of the men’s 1500-meters on Thursday, however, it took a time of 3:34.64 to qualify for the final.
The real story may have been the struggles of Nuguse, the American record-holder in the mile, to match the late-race pace. He entered with the second-fastest 1500-meter time of the season in 3:30.37 and had qualified for three prior U.S. teams.
After taking out the field in 56.91 through 400 meters and 800 meters in 1:54.59, the 26-year-old looked comfortable and in control. So did Kessler. Both looked on the road to a world qualification
But at the bell, things started to shift.
Koech moved to the outside and began to make his move, while Strand offered a surge of his own with 250 meters to go. Both showed a winning edge over the final meters.
Nuguse lost contact with the leaders and fell to fifth overall in 3:31.34, while Kessler was the first man out from qualifying, finishing fourth in 3:31.12.
Both had been among the U.S.’s best performers at the Paris Olympics.
Nuguse may still have an outside shot at qualifying for the World Championships. He would have to win the 1500-meter Diamond League final in Zurich at the end of the month to earn an additional spot.
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Cory Mull is a reporter and editor living in Austin, Texas. He’s run three marathons, completed a 50K, and has a beer mile best somewhere in the nine-minute range. His work has appeared in Forbes, FloTrack, MileSplit, and Runner’s World.
