Edinburgh’s finest smashes 27 year old world record in front of 60,000 roaring fans at London Stadium.
Josh Kerr did what he said he would do. Four months after standing up in March and telling the world he intended to break Hicham El Guerrouj’s mile world record on home soil, the 28 year old from Edinburgh delivered exactly that, storming to a time of 3:42.66 at the London Diamond League on Saturday and tearing up a mark that had stood since 1999, back when Kerr himself was just a year old.
The scale of the achievement cannot be overstated. El Guerrouj’s 3:43.13, set in Rome, had survived every challenger for 27 years. Kerr didn’t just edge past it, he obliterated it, becoming the first man in history to dip under 3:43 for the mile and shaving nearly three seconds off his own British record of 3:45.34 in the process.
It was a night built for a champion. A sell out crowd of 60,000 packed into London Stadium, and they got their money’s worth. Two pacemakers, including his training partner Brannon Kidder, took Kerr through the opening stages before peeling away by the 1,000 metre mark. From there, it was all Kerr, chasing the wavelights set into the kerb of the track, refusing to let the pace drop, and punishing the final three laps with a series of blistering 100 metre splits.
American Yared Nuguse, fourth on the all time list and no stranger to Kerr on the biggest stages, gave chase but was never truly in it, eventually crossing the line in second, with Britain’s own Jake Hayward completing a fine night for the home nations in third.
Kerr’s preparation for the attempt had been characteristically bold and meticulously documented. He called it “Project 222”, a nod to the number of seconds he needed to beat, and it was overseen by his coach Danny Mackey, who had identified this as the target ever since Kerr returned from the calf injury that cost him a shot at gold in Tokyo last September. A 1,200 metre time trial in Albuquerque, run more than 5,000 feet above sea level, had already hinted at what was coming. On the flat and at sea level in London, wearing a bespoke Brooks speed suit designed for aerodynamics and breathability, and spikes built with a carbon plate and titanium pins for lightness, Kerr had every marginal gain in his favour.
Speaking to the BBC afterwards, the emotion of the occasion was written all over him. “It’s very overwhelming with the amount of hype,” he said. “It’s silly to call it that early because there’s a lot of things which can go wrong, but I am surrounded by amazing people and was able to stay consistent and put the work in.”
He went further in comments to World Athletics, admitting the closing stages had tested him to the limit: “I nearly lost it there at the end, but I got over the line.”
Kerr now takes his place in a lineage of British mile greats stretching back to Roger Bannister, who broke the four minute barrier in Oxford in 1954, through Derek Ibbotson, Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett and Steve Cram, the last Briton to hold the record before Saturday, having done so back in 1985. Cram, watching on for the BBC, was fulsome in his praise. “Josh is a world champion, he’s won gold medals, run records but the world mile record perhaps surpasses everything,” he said. “To join that list of great names, I know when I did it, I so wanted to be in that club of world mile record holders. Welcome to the club, Josh!”
For a nation that has waited over four decades to see one of its own hold this most storied of records, Kerr’s run in London will be remembered as a landmark moment, delivered with the swagger he promised and the substance to back it up. He turns his attention next to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next month, where he will look to bring the same magic back to Scottish soil.
