By Abigail Winn
The men’s Invitational and Bowerman miles brought the crowd to its feet at the Prefontaine Classic on Saturday, and for good reasons.
In the men’s Bowerman mile, Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi won with a time of 3 minutes, 49.04 seconds as four-time defending champion Asbel Kiprop placed last and top-seeded Ayanleh Souleiman took a tumble at the start of the third lap and did not finish.
“I feel good,” Kwemoi said. “I made mistakes, but the last 200 I came back.”
In the men’s Invitational mile, 16-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway ran a sub-4 race with a time of 3:58.07 and became the youngest competitor in the event to do so.
“It’s amazing,” said Ingebrigtsen, who finished 11th overall. “I felt really strong this week.”
Ingebrigtsen has been a middle distance runner since age 10 and trains daily with his brothers Filip and Henrik. Henrik ran in the 2012 London Olympics, placing fifth in the 1,500 meters and setting a new national record. He also placed third Saturday in the Invitational mile with a time of 3:53.79. Filip won the 1,500 meters at the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam and placed eighth in this year’s Bowerman mile.
