PORTLAND - 18-year-old Yomif Kejelcha won a thrilling men’s 3,000m on Sunday in 7:57.21 at the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships, but it was American Ryan Hill who brought the roaring crowd to their feet with his thunderous last lap for silver.

The legend of Hill’s nasty kick will grow even more thanks to a powerful move that sent him from 5th to 2nd in the final 200m, closing like a freight train while completing a vicious 2:22 final kilometer to finish second in 7:57.39.

RYAN HILL!!!! pic.twitter.com/1KJDM83wRv

— FloTrack (@FloTrack) March 20, 2016

The teenager Kejelcha became the youngest to ever win 3,000m gold at the World Indoor Championships, while also polishing off an unprecedented gold trifecta: the Ethiopian is the first man to win the World Youth 3,000m, World Junior 5,000m, and now World Indoor 3,000m in history. This title comes on the heels of a 5k Diamond League crown last summer and a fourth place finish in Beijing. Mo Farah is unquestionably still the man in the 5k, but Kejelcha today at least took another step towards a role as his top challenger. 

The US champ Hill faced the daunting task of mowing down three studs to capture his first global medal, but once he blasted past defending champion Caleb Ndiku of Kenya around the first turn of the last lap, it was evident that his trusty kick was going to be just as lethal as usual.

From there, it was five-time World medalist and 2012 1500m indoor champion Abdalaati Iguider to get cut down next by Hill with around 50m to go, and then with arms-stretched wide, the American out-leaned Kenyan Augustine Choge right at the line. In a similar manner to how he crossed the finish line to win his first USA Outdoor 5k title last summer, the Bowerman superstar nabbed his first piece of international hardware.


©Getty Images for IAAF

Choge would settle for bronze in 7:57.43.

It wasn't entirely a perfect day for Hill, according to the man himself. He said afterwards that his pre-race mindset that top-5 would be a good showing caused him to be a little hesitant, and he wished that he had ran a bit more aggressively.

Ryan Hill talks about winning his first medal:



“I had a really good day. Not a perfect day, a little too conservative. Probably some of that ‘just get top-5 mentality’ cost me the gold medal. But if you look at before this race, my best World finish was seventh, so to come back with a second, that’s really hard to complain about,” he said.

While Hill may be kicking himself, if only slightly, this race proves that he'll be a major player— should he qualify as I fully expect him to— in the Olympic 5k final in Rio. 

“It’s 2,000 more meters so I’m going to have to keep working on my strength. What I do like is my style of running will be a lot better on an outdoor track. More room to work, positioning isn’t as crucial. Because I’m not great at getting to the front and staying there in a good field like this. But I’m great going from 5th to second or fourth to first," Hill said.

“I hope that if I make it to the Olympic final, it’s a lot like this.”