Olympic 1500m champion Cole Hocker disqualified from World Athletics Championships over ‘jostling’

Cole Hocker has been disqualified from the 1500m final at the World Athletics Championships after the Olympic champion was ruled to have illegally pushed past Germany’s Robert Farken during the semi-finals on Monday.

Hocker, who triumphed over Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen in last year’s highly anticipated Olympic 1500m final in Paris, was found to have broken World Athletics’ “jostling” rules (TR17.1.2[J]) as the American overtook Farken to finish within the top-six and claim an automatic qualifying spot for Wednesday’s final.

It came following an appeal from Germany, with Farken initially missing out on qualification.

Team USA re-appealed Hocker’s disqualification, but it was quickly denied.

Farken has been advanced to the final, with South Africa’s Tshepo Tshite pushed into the top-six to take the final spot.

“We are disappointed by the decision to disqualify Olympic champion Cole Hocker from the men’s 1500m final,” said the United States Track & Field team. “We believed we had grounds for an appeal and unfortunately, that appeal was denied.”

Hocker was running in the second of two heats in the 1500m semi-finals. It was a physical race from the start, with Canada’s Foster Malleck and Italy’s Federico Riva falling on the track close to the midway point after getting caught in a pack and tripping.

Hocker found himself in traffic as he entered the final straight. The 24-year-old rounded the final bend behind Farken and with the Netherlands’ Stefan Nillessen on his left. Hocker made his move and looked to squeeze through Farken and Nillessen, but in doing so pushed into the German with his right arm and then held his arm across Farken’s body.

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As Hocker came through the gap, Farken and Nillessen dropped away, finishing 9th and 10th in the heat respectively. Great Britain’s Neil Gourley came through behind Hocker to also take a spot and join defending world champion Kerr and Jake Wightman in the final.

Former 1500m world champion Steve Cram, who was commentating for the BBC, said Hocker had “panicked” and agreed with the decision to disqualify the reigning Olympic champion.

"You can't do this, really,” Cram said. “I know the gap was there, if he'd been a bit more patient. He uses his elbow, puts it across Farken, who may or may not have got in, it was down to thousandths of a second as it was with Neil Gourley.

"The Americans will counter-protest. They are absolutely miffed. That’s the Olympic champion, that’s not good for the sport and we’d love him to be there. But at the same time Hocker panicked there and he did impede the German athlete."

Before learning of his disqualification, Hocker defended his move and told Citius Mag: “Obviously I’m not trying to affect anyone else’s race. I was just trying to get to the line in that top six position. Obviously, like, everyone else was. I would have liked to have it a little bit cleaner, but, yeah, it was what it was.”

With Norwegian star Ingebrigtsen crashing out of the 1500m in the first round, two of Kerr’s main rivals will now miss out on the final. The 20-year-old rising star Niels Laros qualified with the fastest time of the semi-finals. Kerr’s heat also saw jostling, with the Scot tumbling to the track after crossing the finish line.