American Yared Nuguse offered up a perfectly-timed attack to claim victory in a top-quality re-run of the Olympic final to win the men’s 1500m at the Zurich Diamond League on Thursday.
Nuguse, who claimed bronze in the Paris Games, outstripped Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen for the win in 3min 29.21sec.
Nuguse’s US teammate and Olympic champion Cole Hocker finished third, while Dutch runner Niels Laros came in fourth, with Kerr in fifth.
Rarely has an event been as keenly contested in recent seasons as the men’s 1500m, and so it once again proved in front of a packed Letzigrund Stadium.
Slovenia’s Zan Rudolf was the opening pacemaker, taking the pack through the opening lap in 55.61sec.
The pace saw the field strung out in single file almost from the off.
Britain’s Elliot Giles, fresh from a world record in the road mile race, took over the pace setting, Ingebrigtsen sat on his shoulder, followed by Nuguse, Kerr and Hocker.
Giles stepped aside at the bell for the final lap, Ingebrigtsen in the lead.
Ingebrigtsen, who beat Hocker in the Lausanne Diamond League, then went on to smash the 3,000m world record in Silesia, but picked up an infection which he said had hampered his preparations for Zurich.
Nuguse clung to his coattails, but a gap built on Kerr and the chasing pack.
As Nuguse took on the Norwegian down the home straight, Hocker made a late charge, but it was too late.
Nuguse edged Ingebrigtsen, Hocker coming in third, a different winner only serving to continue pushing the competition in the event.
“Tactically, it is always more difficult when you have a pacer, but it makes it interesting nevertheless,” said Hocker.
“In races like this, with such a field, it makes you appreciate even more when you win or do well.”
Going into the Paris Olympics, the narrative had all been about Ingebrigtsen avenging his world championships loss to Kerr.
Even World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, himself a two-time Olympic 1500m champion and whose career involved an intense rivalry with Steve Ovett, dubbed the tug-of-war between the two tremendous for the sport.
“It has an added piquancy because this is probably not a friendship made in heaven,” Coe said.
Kerr and Ingebrigtsen have traded barbs since the Scot swept past the Norwegian to snatch world gold in Budapest last year.
But both were upstaged at the Paris Games as the unheralded Hocker surged home for gold ahead of Kerr, Nuguse taking bronze ahead of Ingebrigtsen.
