<\/p>\n
The double Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen has issued a part-apology for calling his rivals \u201closers\u201d and a \u201cbunch of cowards\u201d after a spicy men\u2019s 1500m Diamond League final<\/a> on Friday.<\/p>\n However, Ingebrigtsen has continued to maintain that he was still right to accuse the Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker of cowardice \u2013 because he asked for a strong pace and swapped in his own pacemaker only to then hide behind others in the race.<\/p>\n In a statement issued on Saturday, Ingebrigtsen, who finished fourth behind Australia\u2019s Cameron Myers in a tight finish in 3min 30.52sec, said: \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have called anyone losers. I apologise for that. It was beneath me, regardless of the adrenaline and emotions. But I stand by what I said about Cole and his team acting cowardly.<\/p>\n \u201cThey told the other athletes and the organisers that they were targeting a specific pace and were bringing in their own pacemaker to set that pace, but then they did something completely different.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you promise the crowd a fast race, you have a responsibility to follow through \u2013 at least in my view. This isn\u2019t about me losing. I wasn\u2019t good enough. It\u2019s about taking responsibility for the commitments you\u2019ve made to the meeting organisers, the crowd and your competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n Ingebrigtsen, who returned to racing in August after 11 months out after an achilles sheath injury, ended up following the pacemakers himself after no one else went with them.<\/p>\n But despite running a season\u2019s best time, he was bluntly honest about his \u201cshitty, terrible and extremely disappointing\u201d run afterwards \u2013 before criticising his fellow racers.<\/p>\n On Saturday Ingebrigtsen insisted that he had talked to Hocker afterwards and the matter was settled. However the row flared up again when Hocker\u2019s agent Ray Flynn accused Ingebrigtsen of whining.<\/p>\n \u201cJakob now appears as a whiny runner who blames others,\u201d Flynn wrote in an email to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. \u201cIt is embarrassing to see a great champion complain and blame other runners when he doesn\u2019t win. It is completely disrespectful to his competitors, who now regularly beat him in the 1500 metres.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n