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As Jakob Ingebrigtsen started his training for the outdoor season ahead of the highly anticipated clash against arch-rival Nico Young at the Prefontaine Classic, fans noticed an interesting thing in Norwegian's dress. His 'blacked out' shoes became the centre of debate.
The 1500m Olympic champion announced in January this year that he was skipping the indoor season after feeling discomfort in his Achilles tendon during a practice session. While his rival, Josh Kerr, raced to the 3000m indoor world record at the Milrose Games, the Norwegian claimed that he could beat the Scot ‘blindfolded’.
The war of words has been going on between the two for quite some time after they last met at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest. But the two arch-rivals are now set for an enthralling face-off at the 2024 Prefontaine Classic, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen has already started the preparations for the event.
When he posted a couple of pictures from his practice session, fans noticed a peculiar thing in his dress-up-blacked-out shoes. While the Norwegian didn't give any hint of the reason behind the incident, fans on social media built several narratives.
One of the fans called out the Norwegian for protecting his shoes, assuming some special design was under the black color.
"Bro gatekeeping shoes is crazy", they wrote.
Another fan asked whether the shoes were new, and yet to be released for the public.
"New shoes that can't be shown to the public yet?" they asked
One of the fans called the shoes 'blindfolded', referring to Ingebristsen's comment that he could beat Josh Kerr blindfolded at the Millrose Games, where the latter broke the 3000m indoor world record. They commented:
"Blindfolded shoe"
Jakob Ingebrigtsen-Josh Kerr rivalry timeline
Josh Kerr beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen at the 2023 World Championships in the 1500m finals but a few days later the Norwegian won the 5000m title and took a dig at the Scottish runner. He said:
"Just the next guy (Josh Kerr)"
It set the sparks flying all around, and Kerr replied back hard. He claimed that Ingebrigtsen’s words didn't matter since he was going to be the world champion for the next two years anyway.
"I still have the world championship gold medal and I'm going to be world champion for the next two years regardless of his comments", Kerr claimed. (via Citius Magzine)
When Kerr broke the 3000m indoor world record in 8:00.67, the 1500m Olympic champion claimed that he could beat Kerr blindfolded in that race.
"I would have beaten him in that race blindfolded", the Norwegian claimed as quoted by TV 2 Norway
The two were announced in the lineup for Prefontaine Classic 2023 alongside American runner Yared Nuguse, and they are scheduled to face off on May 25.
