PARIS, France — It had been 39 days since Indianapolis native Cole Hocker ran a 1,500-meter race, it was an obligatory question:
How would he look at the Paris Olympics?
Looked like a medal contender, just as he did in setting an Olympic Trials record of 3:30.59. His hopes remain as bright as his new orange Nike Dragonflys.
“I feel like I’ve served my time, so to speak,” the Cathedral High School graduate said. “So I feel like I belong here.”
Hocker, exploiting his trademark explosive kick, surged late to finish second in a 1,500-meter heat Friday morning as track and field debuted at Stade de France.
All three Americans, including Notre Dame’s Yared Nuguse and 20-year-old Hobbs Kessler, qualified for Sunday’s semifinals. The final is Tuesday.
The top six in each heat advanced, and the top six were separated by 23-hundredths of a second in Hocker’s heat. He was 11th with 200 meters left, eighth with 100 meters left.
Ethiopia’s 19-year-old Ermias Girma won the race in 3:35.21, followed by Hocker in 3:35.27. The Netherlands’ Niels Laros, also 19, was fourth in 3:35.38 and 2021 silver medalist Timothy Cheruiyot, of Kenya, fifth in 3:35.39.
Hocker ran his closing 100 meters in 12.6 seconds, faster than any of the 43 other runners of the first round. His closing 200 was 26.0, same as defending gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen, a Norwegian who was third in heat 3 in 3:37.04.
Hocker was on the rail for most of the race, following leader Stewart McSweyn, of Australia. Then, the 23-year-old Hoosier was stuck as others passed on the outside.
“I don’t really like to depend on just a 100-meter kick at the end of prelims and semis that much,” Hocker said. “But sometimes, you have to make that decision. Today, I was like either I get kind of frantic and start jostling with 200 to go, or I kind of just waited.
“I was counting heads with 150 to go. ‘I know I can catch half this field if I have to.’ That’s kind of where my mind was.”
This is the second Olympics for Hocker, who was sixth at Tokyo. There, he said, he was “hanging on,” but said he has matured since then.
Now, he is a world indoor silver medalist, trying to upgrade.
He decided not to race after the Olympic Trials, instead training at his Blacksburg, Va., residence. No one remembers a fast Diamond League race at Monaco, he said. Everyone remembers the Olympics.
“Every level, I feel like I’ve learned and adapted how to race,” Hocker said. “I finally feel like I’ve figured out the global scene a little bit, the professional side of it. And now it’s in my mind to be in that conversation for best in the world.”
As with Hocker, Nuguse was boxed in along the rail in the first heat. He finally found room and ran his last 200 in 26.6, a spurt allowing him to finish fifth in 3:36.56.
Reigning world champion Josh Kerr, of Great Britain, went from 11th to first over the final 400, clocking 3:35.83. Kerr, 26, was coached at New Mexico by Greencastle native Joe Franklin, a former Purdue runner and Butler coach.
Nuguse qualified for the Tokyo Olympics but didn’t race there because of a quad strain.
“It was kind of surreal on the line a little bit, just seeing all the Olympic insignia and stuff,” Nuguse said. “Just like, ‘Man, finally here, three years later.’ It’s really, really awesome, and I didn’t want to squander that chance. Luckily, I did not.
“The Olympics really does bring out a lot in every athlete that competes in it.”
Contact WTHR correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.