Matthew Centrowitz won the first gold medal in the men’s 1,500 meters since 1908 when James Sullivan won for the U.S. with a time of 4:07.6 at the London games.
Centrowitz captured the win with a time of 3:50.00 leading the race from wire to wire and edging out reigning Olympic champion Taoufik Makhloufi of Algeria who was unable to reel Centrowitz in over the last 100m and settled for silver with a time of 3:50.11
New Zealand’s Nick Willis, who owns an Olympic silver medal from the 2008 Olympics, took bronze in 3:50.24.
2008 Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya may have been favored to win the race given his 3:26.