Cole Hocker Finds His Slice Of Redemption, Secures Gold In The 5K At World Championships

TOKYO, JAPAN – SEPTEMBER 21: Gold medalist, Cole Hocker of Team United States, celebrates with the national flag after winning the Men’s 5000 Metres Final on day nine of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 at National Stadium on September 21, 2025 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

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Six days after being disqualified in the 1,500-meter semifinals at the World Outdoor Track and Field Championships, American Cole Hocker earned his revenge.

The 2024 Olympic 1,500-meter gold medalist patiently waited out the field in the final lap in Tokyo before he reeled off a 52-second final frame that saw him take gold in 12:58.30 on Sunday in National Stadium, dispatching the likes of Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli and France’s Jimmy Gressier, who were second and third, respectively.

Hocker, who was 12th on the bell lap, is now one of three Americans to win a 5K title in a global championship, joining the likes of Bernard Lagat (2007) and Bob Schul (1964). Fellow American Nico Young, who was fifth in the 10K, was sixth on Sunday, while Grant Fisher was eighth. Reigning Olympic 5K champion Jacob Ingebrigtsen was 10th.

“Pretty incredible,” Hocker told a group of reporters afterward. “I had no idea of that stat.”

The win gave the 24-year-old Hocker, who was also the U.S. champion, the first world title of his career and his second straight gold in a global championship.

“If I was attached with two laps to go, I knew I could run with anyone, kick with anyone,” Hocker said. “That’s exactly how it played out. Very rarely do I think I ran a race perfectly, but I feel like tonight was pretty damn close.”

How A Disqualification Motivated Cole Hocker

All wasn’t La La Land for Hocker in the lead-up to the 5,000 meters, though. The American said his disqualification on Sept. 15 – which saw the U.S. athlete shimmy his way through two athletes on the final homestretch; enough for officials to deem infringement – put him in a complicated headspace that made him question the situation.

“Obviously, really upset,” he said. “I could (only) control what I could control. And at that point, it was out of my hands. I felt like an opportunity was ripped out of my hands.”

In the minutes after his DQ, Hocker chose not to speak with reporters. And then in the interim hours, he jumped off social media. He later wrote in his journal and made it his mission to be ready for the 5K. “When that was ripped away from me, I just thought, ‘Let’s re-center,’” he said.

Two days later, in a chaotic 1,500-meter final, Portugal’s Isaac Nader secured the world win in 3:34.10. It only reaffirmed Hocker’s belief that he had been ready to chase after the global title after his Olympic win in 2024 – though he did not watch the race live on Sept. 17. “It was a mental battle more than anything,” he said. “I knew my fitness was there.”

Hocker, however, found his focus soon enough.

How Cole Hocker Re-Aligned For His World Championship 5K Final

On Sept. 19, he managed his men’s 5K first round effectively, earning a qualifier after finishing third in 13:13.41.

Then, in the final on Sunday, he pushed the field out through 400 meters – a tactic he said was meant to test the patience of the runners early on. “I wanted to go to the front and see how long they would let me dictate the pass,” he said.

Hocker kept his positioning in-tact throughout, never losing contact with the leading pack, before unleashing his final assault over the final 400 meters. He slipped past a couple runners on the backstretch before biding his time on the curve and then laying it all out in the final straightaway.

”Very rarely do I think I ran a race perfectly,” he said. “but I feel like tonight was pretty damn close.”

Heading into the peak of his career, Hocker has remained healthy and firing on all cylinders – even if Sunday’s race was just the third win of his entire season.

When it mattered (and when it wasn’t taken away), Hocker was the best in the world.