When Cole Hocker and Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the last two Olympic champions, failed to make the 1500m final at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, you might have thought the metric mile had run out of surprises.
Step up Portugal’s Isaac Nader, who clinched a sensational gold medal at the Japan National Stadium on Wednesday 17 September.
His world title – secured in yet another one of those closer-than-believable races that have become a feature of this year’s Worlds – represented his first-ever victory at a global championships. In any age group.
“I am emotionally tired, but very happy,” Nader said after the race. “I am speechless. Today I am a world champion, and there is only one bigger title, the Olympic gold.”
Nader timed his run for the line to perfection, creeping just ahead of 2022 world champion Jake Wightman, who had taken the lead with 200m to go, mimicking his race-winning tactics from Oregon three years ago.
Wightman, like Nader, had not been a favourite, given the injuries that have plagued him over the past two years.
“I came so close,” he said after the race, with his choice of words clearly an understatement. “I thought someone was coming, and I just did everything I could… the only way I could have topped that was with the win, but there’s nothing else I could have done. I literally did everything I possibly could.”
In the end, it was the athlete from Faro, Portugal who proved unbeatable, claiming a sensational gold in 3:34.10, with the winning margin over Wightman a mere 0.02 seconds.
That’s closer than the 100m final, by the way – but we’re getting used to saying that here in Tokyo.
In third place, another three hundredths behind was Kenya’s Reynold Cheruiyot, who took an impressive bronze ahead of compatriot and 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot.
Pre-race favourite Niels Laros of the Netherlands faded hard, eventually finishing fifth, while the reigning world champion, Josh Kerr, began limping midway through the race and was forced to abandon his fight for gold, eventually finishing in last place.
Kerr will be back, along with all the other early casualties at these world championships. But the emergence of Nader and his brilliance on this hot and humid night in Tokyo, adds yet another element to the men’s 1500m event that had become one of the most exciting of any in the world of athletics.