Michael Johnson's Olympic recap - Day Six - video Dailymotion

Four-time Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson previews the 1500m final with Josh Kerr taking centre-stage

Transcript

00:00I love rivalries. I think it raises everybody's games and I think it gets fans more engaged.

00:08Why are we so engrossed by rivalries?

00:10Rivalries are great. Rivalries are fun because people want to pick a side.

00:15And when you've got a rivalry, you've got somebody saying, this is my guy, this is my girl.

00:19Somebody saying, your guy, your girl sucks, you know, and they want their person. And yeah,

00:24and it just becomes a great debate. Right now, you got, yeah, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr.

00:31You got Noah Lyles versus the Jamaicans. Noah Lyles versus Fred Curley. Noah Lyles versus

00:37the world. Noah Lyles versus the NBA. I mean, you got all of this stuff, right?

00:42I think when you have rivalry, it makes you better. I mean,

00:46I was better when Frankie Fredericks was there because I know that he's going to make me raise

00:50my game. Thank you. Tonight's 1500 meter men's final, who are Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen?

01:01Jakob Ingebrigtsen, one of the greatest distance runners we've seen. He's not afraid to talk.

01:06He likes to put himself in the spotlight and he delivers. He's Jakob. Josh is no-nonsense,

01:12not afraid to race, not afraid of the rivalry, not afraid to state his goals. Jakob says things,

01:20I think sometimes for effect. Josh is like, I don't need to say anything for effect. I'll just

01:24tell you what I'm thinking, which is that I'm just going to clobber whoever is out there. If

01:28that's Jakob, I'm going to kick his ass. That's just, that's who I am. That's what I believe. And

01:33that's what I'm going to do. And you can't get much better than that.

01:37Does somebody have the edge over the other tonight?

01:40I don't think either one has an advantage over the other. I think they both have different

01:44advantages. Jakob comes into this with the fastest time in the world this year,

01:49which is an advantage. His disadvantage is that he's lost the last two world championships to

01:55Brits. Josh is world champion, beat Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the world championships last

02:02year in the 1500. The disadvantage, if there is one, is that he hasn't run as fast this year.

02:09So I think that it sets up the best sort of situation where there's advantages and disadvantages

02:14for both. And we're going to see how those play out.

02:18The final is happening in just a few hours. How does the race unfold tonight? We're giving you

02:2315.00 seconds on the clock. On your marks, get set.

02:28I almost false started. I literally almost false started. I was like...

02:33On your mark, set, go!

02:36All right. I think there's going to be a little cat and mouse between Jakob and

02:39Josh at the very beginning. And then what we're going to watch for is somebody trying

02:43to mix up the pace and try to mix it up a little bit. Throw somebody off their game.

02:48Bell lap. At the bell, it's just going to be all out, just a race. I almost got there.

02:53I almost got it. That was tight. That was on it.

02:56Almost. All right, cool.