Jakob Ingebrigtsen Wins the 1,500m and 5K at His Own Race in Sandnes

Jakob Ingebrigtsen grew up training on the roads around Sandnes, and this weekend he won on them twice. The Olympic 5,000m champion took the elite 1,500m on Friday evening in 3:40.7, then came back on Saturday to win the 5K in 13:26 at the first RunFest Norway, the street running festival he founded in his hometown with his brothers Filip and Henrik.

Andreas Fjeld Halvorsen, who had been second in the 1,500m the night before, came much closer over 5K and finished just two seconds back in 13:28, with Ethiopia’s Abdrselam Worku third in 13:29, according to the official results.

Filip Ingebrigtsen said after Friday’s race that his brother had been ill with COVID-19 in the days after the World Road Running Championships, Kondis reported. In Copenhagen on Sept. 19, his 26th birthday, Jakob led the world 5K inside the final 200 meters before Dawit Seare came past him, and his 12:59 in second place was a Norwegian record. Saturday’s winning time was 27 seconds slower, and it came only a couple of weeks after the illness.

Friday’s 1,500m went through the town center and into a headwind, and he still had 2.6 seconds on Halvorsen at the finish, with Sigurd Tveit third in 3:47.8. Norwegians filled the first six places. On Instagram afterward, Ingebrigtsen rounded his time to 3:41 and wrote that winning “on the same streets I have run thousands of kilometres and with such an amazing atmosphere from the local community was a real highlight of the season.”

RunFest was first announced for late September and ran over three days, opening with a summit of talks on Thursday before the races on Friday and Saturday. Malin Hoelsveen won the women’s 1,500m, and Wilma Bekkemoen Torbiörnsson took the women’s 5K in 16:26, 19 seconds clear of Hoelsveen. Ethiopia’s Biniyam Melak won the men’s 10K in 27:29, almost a minute ahead of Kenya’s Alex Columbas Lenalepisho.

Ingebrigtsen’s season only got going after he had surgery on his Achilles in February. In August he won his fourth straight European 5,000m title in Birmingham in 13:15.29, and at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest last month he won the 5,000m in 12:59.24, his first time under 13 minutes on the track since 2021. He then pulled out of the 1,500m there. “I’m not in a position where I’m able to go back-to-back races,” he said at the time, pointing to two years of injury problems. Three weeks later in Sandnes, he raced on consecutive days and won both.