Gary Martin finishes second in 1000m in Göteborg Monday night...
Martin, who just graduated from the University of Virginia, was in the middle of the pack in the race, and made a late charge, only to come up just short.
France's Louey Ouerrat took the win in 2:16.21, with Martin just behind in 2:16.40.
Washington alum Luke Houser was eighth in 2:19.26.
The marks were personal bests for both Martin and Houser.
KERR'S EXCEPTIONAL INVITATION ANNOUNCED BY WORLD ATHLETICS...
As we reported last week, new world mile record holder Josh Kerr of the Brooks Beasts will indeed compete in the men's 1500 at the newly created World Athletics Ultimate Championships September 11-13 in Budapest, Hungary.
World Athletics made it official in a press release Monday.
In the release, they also extended an invitation to Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Tokyo Olympic champion in that event.
The field for the men’s 1500m will be expanded to 13 to accommodate these two exceptional invitations, with prize money to be allocated to the 13th place athlete in accordance with the distribution in other disciplines (US$5000 for 13th place). This decision was made through careful deliberation by the steering board of the Ultimate Championship. While exceptional invitations are otherwise capped at one per discipline for the inaugural edition of the global championship, the board determined this race could not in good faith be considered a full lineup of the greatest athletes on the planet without the inclusion of both Kerr and Ingebrigtsen.
“I’m excited to race the 1500m at the Ultimate Championship,” said Kerr. “I’ve made some choices this season that have created plenty of noise, but I’ve always wanted to prove myself in the biggest races, against the best in the world. Budapest gives me another opportunity to do that, and I’m coming to compete for the win.”
Kerr is skipping the last two Diamond League meets in Zürich and Brussels to prepare for this matchup with Ingebrigtsen, along with Paris Olympic 1500 gold medalist Cole Hocker and last year's world champion, Isaac Nader of Portugal. Hocker and Nader both have automatic invitations to the meet by virtue of being the most recent Olympic and world champions.
Kerr won the 2023 world championships in Budapest over Ingebrigtsen (Paul Merca file photo) when he passed him with less than 200 meters to go.
NOTE: Brooks Running, European Athletics and World Athletics contributed to this report.
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