Sports Poets Society

MATTIA OZBOT/WORLD ATHLETICS/GETTY IMAGES  Jakob Ingebrigtsen crosses the line in Budapest to win the 5,000m Norwegian leaves Hocker trailing to claim 5,000m title at inaugural championships 12 Sep 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport Sean Ingle It is a scene that has become gloriously familiar down the years. Jakob Ingebrigtsen leaving the world’s best athletes gasping in his slipstream, holding one finger in the air, revelling in his athletic genius. But this victory over 5,000m at the inaugural Ultimate Championships carried extra sweetness – and spice. The sweetness? That came from winning a mammoth first prize of $150,000. And the spice? Well, that was provided by the way Ingebrigtsen utterly obliterated his great American rival Cole Hocker , a man he had branded a “coward” just a week ago. Ingebrigtsen, the reigning Olympic 5,000m champion, has never been shy of venturing an opinion, and he was particularly aggrieved when Hocker substituted his own pacemaker in for the 1500m Diamond...

Josh Kerr on soaring to home gold glory ‘There’s a persona on the track. A lot chat … that’s not how I roll’ Josh Kerr on Commonwealth Games glory on home soil, his dedication to sport, the 1500m world record, and why he doesn’t want his rivals to know him too well ‘There’s not much you can do in a mile race that’s going to beat me.  I’m running with a home crowd’ ‘World Athletics is doing a good job.  But we need to push to get the best racing each other more’ 3 Aug 2026 - The Guardian Sean Ingle It was late on a crisp Glasgow night when Josh Kerr unlocked his hidden human side. Most of those who had roared themselves hoarse as he powered to Commonwealth gold had long gone. But after a few tears on the podium, Kerr spent more than half an hour posing for every selfie and signing every autograph. It took quite some time, as the terminator on the track turned out to be a chatterbox off it. Although sometimes when he was asked for advice, Kerr couldn’t resist a flash of droll hu...

‘In the right situation, I can win a Grand Tour’ The British rider and unvarnished free spirit on why duelling with Pogacar is like ‘racing a zombie’ and his Grand Tour hopes ‘My shoulder, elbow and my hand hurt the most. I was, like, I’ve definitely broken something here’ 4 Jun 2026 - The Guardian Sean Ingle When Tom Pidcock talks about how it feels to chase down the greatest cyclist of his generation, his language is so vivid you can almost taste the salt-baked sweat on Tadej Pogacar’s jersey. But as we discuss the pair’s epic duel at the Milan-San Remo classic in March, and what it was like when a bloodied Pogacar went nuclear on the final climb, Pidcock can’t help but smile. “Up the Poggio, when I was following his attack, it was like racing a zombie,” he says. “He was white, white skinsuit, white shorts cut up, blood. He’s a demon. It was incredible.” What made Pogacar’s performance even more staggering was that he crashed 30km from the finish. Yet as everyone else slipped back, ...

IN PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES London Marathon finishers wait to have their medals engraved  by an advert bearing Sabastian Sawe’s record-breaking time Kenyan’s stunning sub-two feat is the 21st-century’s own Bannister moment It was a point where a sport is divided into a before and an after 28 Apr 2026 - The Guardian Sean Ingle A few years ago at the London Marathon, organisers wheeled out an industrial-sized treadmill called the Tumbleator. Then they tempted curious onlookers with a simple question: can you keep up with Eliud Kipchoge? The answer was obvious. But that didn’t stop people trying. Most only lasted a few seconds before comically flying off the back into crash mats. The Tumbleator has a fresh poster-boy now: Sabastian Sawe, who on Sunday claimed track and field’s last holy grail by running a sub-two-hour marathon. Imagine sprinting 17 seconds for 100 metres, and then sustaining it across 26.2 miles. Or setting your treadmill at 4min 33sec per mile pace and carrying on for 1...

PHOTOGRAPH/IAN WALTON/AP  Sabastian Sawe from Kenya crosses the finish line,  winning the men’s race and shattering the twohour barrier He came, he Sawe, he conquered Kenyan strides into history with world’s first sub-two-hour race on London Marathon’s greatest day 27 Apr 2026 - The Guardian Sean Ingle @The Mall The greatest sporting feat of the century? The London Marathon’s organisers have hailed the “greatest day” in the event’s 45-year history after huge crowds watched Sabastian Sawe become the first man to shatter the two-hour barrier in an official race, and a world record tally of more than 60,000 runners started the event. By 6.30pm last night, organisers were also hopeful of breaking the record number of 59,226 finishers, set by the New York marathon last year, although they said it could go right down to the deadline of 11.59pm. Hugh Brasher, the race director, said an estimated 800,000 people had watched an epic men’s race, in which Sawe and the Ethiopian Yomif Keje...

KIRBY LEE/IMAGN IMAGES/ REUTERS The NBA fined Indiana Pacers $100,000 for  removing  some of their star players during a game It has been a ‘perfect storm’ this season because there are four college superstars expected in June’s NBA draft 10 Mar 2026 - The Guardian Sean Ingle Imagine you are the director of football at a crisis-stricken Premier League club in a world where relegation doesn’t exist and the planet’s best teenagers become available for free in a draft every June. In this alternate universe, you are also aware of something else: the 2026 Premier League draft is one for the ages. Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Pau Cubarsí are in it. So are Bayern Munich’s Lennart Karl and Real Madrid’s Franco Mastantuono . Sign one of them and the glory days will suddenly beckon again. There is, though, one almighty curveball. Teams that finish in the bottom four have a 14% chance of getting the first pick in the draft. But with every place you climb, your chances of acquiring a top ...

Jakob Ingebrigtsen's magnificent obsession ‘Winning is an obsession,  but it’s one I’ve been feeding my whole life’ At home in Norway, the iron man of athletics says his career feels like ‘99% losses’ but plans to retire as the greatest distance runner in history ‘For me, this is not only a job,  I’ve had this life for as long as I can remember’ ‘I am very much an introvert in general,  but am an extrovert in an environment where I feel safe’ 24 Jan 2026 - THE GUARDIAN / Sport Sean Ingle On a bone-cold new year’s morning, the world’s most compelling athlete is sweating so much that tiny puddles are starting to ooze across his treadmill. MARIE VON KROGH/ THE GUARDIAN For 40 minutes Jakob Ingebrigtsen makes 6min 40sec mile pace look like a Sunday stroll, breezily chatting away even as the heatbox in his home gym pushes the temperature inside to more than 32.4C (90F). Only when I ask the double Olympic champion what his super-strength is does he pause to take a proper brea...

ANTONIN THUILLIER/ AFP/GETTY IMAGES EDGAR SU/REUTERS  Portugal’s Isaac Nader pips Wightman on the finish line with Timothy Cheruiyot third  ▼Josh Kerr, the defending champion, grabs the injured calf which wrecked his race Wightman’s silver ‘special’ after mental and physical scars ‘The self-doubt has been immense.  I’m 31 years old’     - Jake Wightman 1500m silver medallist 18 Sep 2025 - The Guardian Sean Ingle - @National Stadium, Tokyo When Jake Wightman sat on the bus to the 1500m heats at the World Athletics Championships on Sunday, he told himself that if he failed to make it through he was done. He was 31. His body was breaking down so often that he felt he had post-traumatic stress disorder. And he feared his best days were behind him. Yet, just three days later, what had seemed like a final hurrah became a glorious resurrection. What a fighter. What an athlete. What a 1500m final. Most expected this to be a shootout between Britain’s defending cha...

FRANCK ROBICHON/EPA Alphonce Simbu (left) takes marathon gold ahead of Amanal Petros by 0.03sec,  as confirmed by the photo-finish Simbu claims marathon title in photo-finish 16 Sep 2025 - The Guardian Sean Ingle One of the most dramatic finales in marathon history ended with one athlete diving for the line, another unsure of the result, and Seiko’s photo-finish machine being called into emergency action. After 26.2 miles, and more than two hours of sweat and brutal toil, the print confirmed that Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu had pipped Germany’s Amanal Petros in a sprint finish. The gap between the two men – 0.03sec – was tighter than in both the men’s and women’s 100m finals. It also marked the second day in succession that a marathon was decided with an all-out sprint to the line after Peres Jepchirchir won the women’s race from Tigst Assefa by two seconds. “I told myself I was not going to give up,” said Simbu, who finished in 2:09:48, the same time as Petros. “When we entered the ...