There are few venues more deeply embedded into track and field’s soul than the Bislett Stadion. An extraordinary 70 world records have been set here. Plenty of reputations have been made. Plenty more left frayed, too.
And so it proved again as the brilliant 17-year-old American Cooper Lutkenhaus added to his staggering résumé by taking down the Olympic 800m champion, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, with a race for the ages. But another, the Australian star Gout Gout, learned what it was like in the big leagues.
When it came to Lutkenhaus versus Wanyonyi, there was no time for preliminaries. At the gun, Wanyonyi charged after the pacemaker. Lutkenhaus, who won the world indoor title in March, followed. They were through halfway at 49.81sec and already it was a two-horse race.
Lutkenhaus showed he was no respecter of reputations as he kicked hard at 200m and went five metres clear coming around the bend.
But as he tied up, Wanyonyi rallied, and Lutkenhaus needed a superman dive to run the fastest time of the year, 1min 42.08sec, to win by 0.01.
“To beat the Olympic champion is awesome and it means a lot,” said Lutkenhaus. “I have not seen the grazes yet from my dive but I think they will hurt in the shower later.”
There are caveats. Wanyonyi had other things on his mind after the birth of his first child, Noela, last week. He is also looking to peak later in the season. Even so this was a mighty performance, as the Kenyan himself recognised.
“This boy is in good shape,” he said. “Can you believe that as an Olympic champion, you are trying to knock down a 17-year-old boy? But the season is still early.”
Before the race the US website Let’s Run had asked whether Lutkenhaus could be considered the world No 1 if he won. But when asked about it afterwards the American offered a response beyond his years.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. “Wanyonyi’s the Olympic champ. Just because you beat someone one time, I don’t think that means you’re better than them. But today I had a great day and I was able to come out with the win.”
Meanwhile, another teenage phenomenon, the 18-year-old Australian 200m star Gout, had a much tougher evening as he could finish only sixth in his senior Diamond League debut in a modest 20.60sec.
That was more than three-quarters of a second behind the Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, who, having delivered a harsh lesson on the track, gave him another one off it as well. “After the race, I wanted to talk to Gout Gout but he is so busy with all the media,” he explained.
“First and foremost, he should not get comfortable racing with the seniors. He still has a long way to go. He should by all means play with his age mates where he is a bit more comfortable because the more he runs, the more he pushes and the more injuries he is going to get.
“Because there’s going to come a time where now he really has to face the big guys, and by then I’m hoping his body will be ready, because right now he’s still flexible.
“He doesn’t have the ankle stiffness, his ankles still twist while he’s running. So for me it’s just about letting him enjoy his junior years.”
Gout, though, tried to take the positives from his race. “The start was not my best,” he said. “The first 60m was a bit uneasy, for sure. There’s a lot more room for me to improve. I love competing against the big boys and I’ll be back for sure – I put no limits on myself.”
The best British performance of the night came from Amy Hunt, who broke 11 seconds again in coming second to the Olympic champion, Julien Alfred, over 100m, who won in 10.76.
But this was a night that will be remembered most for Lutkenhaus’s stunning win. At the end of it, he was asked what he thought might happen next in his embryonic career. “I don’t know what’s possible,” he replied. “Every time I think I’ve reached a limit, I feel like I’m able to break it the next race I run.”
And, for his rivals, that is the scariest thing of all.
