Canadian Olympian Kieran Lumb has made the most important transfer of his profession—only a month earlier than lining up for each the 1,500m and 5,000m at this week’s Canadian Monitor and Discipline Championships in Ottawa.
Lumb will arrive on the Canadian Monitor and Discipline Championships on Thursday driving the momentum of a 5,000m private better of 13:12.54 in Heusden, the Netherlands. His time is the quickest outside 5,000m by a Canadian this yr, however maybe, extra attention-grabbing is who he’s now being coached by: Gjert Ingebrigtsen—the estranged father of two-time Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
The 26-year-old’s uncommon mid-season transfer to a brand new group began with a friendship with considered one of Ingebrigtsen’s athletes, world championship 1,500m medallist Narve Gilje Nordås. In June, he joined Nordås in St. Moritz, Switzerland, for a month-long coaching camp. Lumb referred to as the connection “an awesome match,” and one which sparked a change in his coaching surroundings.
“I cherished the setup,” says Lumb on Ingebrigtsen’s group. “This can be a step I felt I wanted to take to determine how good I could be.”
That step included becoming a member of the newly shaped Vikings Athletics Membership professional crew—Ingebrigtsen’s newest venture after a storm of non-public controversy. Ingebrigtsen, a father of seven, was accused of abuse by his kids. He was acquitted of most expenses in June 2025, receiving a suspended sentence for a single incident.
In response to the investigation, the Norwegian federation denied Ingebrigtsen accreditation for the Paris 2024 Olympics and 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest—however now he’s eligible to return to the world championships this yr.
For Lumb, Ingebrigtsen’s previous didn’t outline his determination. “I believe for me, what’s vital is to make your personal opinions on folks once you meet them,” he says. “I can solely communicate to my expertise with Gjert, and he’s been extraordinarily welcoming and sort on and off the monitor. I’ve nothing however optimistic issues to say.”
After a quiet stretch by way of the early a part of his 2025 season, Lumb felt his performances have been plateauing. “I spoke to my coach Andy [Powell] and informed him how I felt. I began exploring different setups,” Lumb tells Canadian Operating. That search led him to St. Moritz—an expertise Lumb describes as eye-opening.
Lucia Stafford and Kieran Lumb win back-to-back nationwide 1,500m titles
Since becoming a member of the group, Lumb has seen extra consistency, clocking 3:35 in two of his three European 1,500m races underneath Ingebrigtsen’s steering, and says he’s shortly seeing positive factors from the Norwegian coaching technique—a system constructed round lactate-guided threshold intervals and intensely polarized coaching. “We work exhausting, however we preserve the straightforward days extraordinarily straightforward,” Lumb says of the strategy. “We create the stress, then get better and take in all of it.”
After not reaching the lads’s 1,500m semi-finals on the 2024 Olympics, Lumb discovered himself questioning his future. “There have been moments the place I needed to ask myself why I used to be doing this sport,” he says. “The Olympics are the tip of the iceberg and simply considered one of many arenas we compete in. I like working for working.”
Lumb says he feels assured heading into the Canadian championships, the place he’s doubling up within the 1,500m and 5,000m. “I needed a brand new problem,” Lumb says of his determination to double. “I really feel aerobically match proper now. And it’s an thrilling time to be part of the 1,500m in Canada with a lot upcoming expertise like Foster [Malleck], Marco [Arop] and Max [Davies].”
Although he has a busy weekend forward within the nation’s capital, racing probably thrice in 4 days (between July 31 and Aug. 3), he says he’s able to take the step from being a professional to being a constant world-class 1,500m runner.
