Britain’s Josh Kerr celebrates after successful the boys’s one mile occasion in the course of the IAAF Diamond League athletics competitors on the London stadium in London on July 18, 2026. — AFP
LONDON: Britain’s Josh Kerr etched his title into the pantheon of milers when he set a brand new world report within the males’s mile on the London Diamond League on Saturday.
The 28-year-old US-based Scot clocked 3 minutes 42.66 seconds at London Stadium to smash the earlier finest of three:43.13 set by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in Rome in 1999.
Kerr has constructed his season round going after El Guerrouj’s earlier finest mark.
The Scot had threatened pre-race that his physique was “capable of the mark”.
British report holder Kerr, the Olympic 1,500m silver medallist, went into the race with a private finest of three:45.34, sixth on the all-time checklist.
A two-time world indoor 3,000m winner, Kerr was paced to perfection by his coaching accomplice Brannon Kidder and Slovenian Zan Rudolph.
Olympic bronze medallist Yared Nuguse, the North American report holder and fourth within the all-time mile checklist, clung on to Kerr till the ultimate 200 metres.
The Scot then placed on the afterburners in entrance of a close to 60,000-capacity crowd at a raucous stadium constructed for the 2012 London Olympics.
He roared by means of the road, punching the air in ecstasy, the exultant crowd on their toes in a deafening welcome for his or her new hero.
Earlier than El Guerrouj put in himself as world report holder, British milers have been an establishment on the observe.
Roger Bannister was the primary man to run a sub-4min mile in 1954.
Then got here middle-distance legends Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram, who dominated the occasion from 1979-93.
World Athletics president Coe was readily available to current Kerr with a cheque for $50,000 and a e-book on successful milers.
