Josh Kerr backed up his bravado to set a world record in the mile at the London Diamond League.
The Olympic 1500m silver medallist and 2023 world champion raised eyebrows when he set out his stall in March, announcing his intention to wipe out Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj’s 27-year-old mark of three minutes and 43.13 seconds.
But the 28-year-old, decked out in a custom Brooks speed suit and spikes, proved he could practice what he preached by blazing to the finish in three minutes, 42.66s.
He finished well ahead of Paris 2024 1500m bronze medallist Yared Nuguse, who was second in 3:45.69, while Briton Jake Heyward rounded out the podium in a personal-best 3:46.73.
The Edinburgh athlete had branded the attempt “Project 222” a nod to the number of seconds it takes to run a 3:42.00 mile, his ambitious target.
Kerr’s previous personal best, the 3:45.34 British record he set at the Prefontaine Classic in 2024, was also 2.21 seconds slower than El Guerrouj’s mark.
The Scot made a similar statement of intent months before breaking Sir Mo Farah’s indoor two-mile record in February 2024, and said he had not missed a training session in the build-up to this attempt.
On Friday evening, Kerr revealed via his YouTube channel that he had run a hand-timed 1200m split of 2:42.45 at 5,335 feet of elevation in Albuquerque in a recent training session, though it was with a flying start.
It was nevertheless 3.989 seconds faster than El Guerrouj at the same point in his world record race, and 2.3secs faster than the Moroccan’s split – believed to have been the fastest recorded at 1200m – when he attempted to break his own record in 2002.
