Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen has teased an unlikely return to the 3000m steeplechase ahead of September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
The Tokyo Olympics 1500m and Paris Olympics 5000m champion has been struggling with injury and has not competed since a brilliant indoor season which saw him land 1500m/3000m doubles at both the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships and World Indoor Championships in Nanjing.
"Don't forget, I was a steeplechaser in 2017"
Talking on his YouTube channel in a new video on Wednesday (13), he said: “I think that is going to lead up to a very exciting mid-September where worst case scenario we have to change things a little bit and maybe do something a little bit different.
“Don't forget, I was a steeplechaser in 2017 in my first World Championship, but again that is very much and very difficult discipline for - let's say your tendons - but that is where we are at right now, we are trying to push as much as we can.”
Ingebrigtsen won 3000m steeplechase and 5000m gold at the 2017 European Athletics U20 Championships in Grosseto.
The Norwegian also went into greater details over his recent injury woes: “The last eight weeks have been challenging, but at the same time I have been progressing quite a bit until things happen and I got a setback. Stumbled up on some illness, sent me a little back and gave some more irritation to the Achilles.
“So, a little bit up and down, but in total the last eight weeks have been progressing both mileage, volume and also the pace. Until right now where I have been one half week in altitude in St Moritz and really progressing the load that I have given myself and also on the Achilles.
“A very good track session just a couple of days ago, so definitely pointing in the right direction, but still a lot more to improve and a lot more things that need to be done for me to be 100% prepared for (the) World Championships.”
“I think next two, three weeks we will get a lot of answers in what type of training that I have been doing, what I can do and also in terms of fitness, how fast I can run.”
"A mental roller-coaster"
It has been a rare setback for an athlete renowned for racing frequently indoors, outdoors and on the cross country garnering two Olympic, four world and 16 European titles in his incredible senior career.
“It is definitely very difficult getting a setback as a professional athlete, especially when you have kind of been progressing and developing as an athlete almost continuously the last couple of years,” he said.
“But everyone is going to have some sort of setback. But it's also what can be challenging is having an open mind when it comes to results or progression, short term but also long term.
“Because even though you're trying everything with treatment, with training, with alternative training and doing everything 100%, you don't necessarily have a guarantee that you are progressing and developing and getting along with where you want to be headed.
“So, seeing how the light at the end of tunnels and then getting a second, or even third or fourth setback is one of the bigger challenges, because it is a mental roller coaster where you are starting to be positive and see some results.
“But everything is lost in a split of a second and you really need to reset and still keep you head down and push through with the training ad the things that need to be done.”