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Great Britain’s Josh Kerr smashed a 27-year world record in the men’s mile with an excellent display at the London Diamond League.
The 28-year-old ran an impressive time of 3.42.66 – nearly half a second quicker than Hicham El Guerrouj’s benchmark of 3.43.13 set in 1999.
Usually competing in the 1500m at the World Championships or Olympic Games, he announced in March his intention to break the Moroccan’s 27-year record on home soil at the London Stadium.
Back by a rapturous crowd in the capital as he crossed the line to set a new world record time, Kerr became the seventh British athlete to claim the mile record – the first since Steve Cram in 1985.
“It’s very overwhelming with the amount of hype [I created]. It’s silly to call [the attempt] 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,” Kerr told BBC Sport afterwards.
“If I am to leave my mark on this sport as a British legend, following in the footsteps of the legends behind me, I have to put in those performances.
“Those performances take every single part of you, every single part of your team. The amount of work behind the scenes is incredible. Today it was a performance I was able to bring out – I just hoped it would be a little bit faster!”
He was joined on the podium by fellow Brit Jake Heyward as he crossed the line in third with a time of 3.46.73.
Later in the day, Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson won the women’s 800m with a time of 1.56.21, but that was nearly three tenths slower than the world record set by Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983.
The 24-year-old’s hopes of beating the 43-year record took a hit before the race as she suffered a small injury in one of her cooling sessions in Wigan, tripping over and landing on a metal grate, which grazed her knees.
A gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Hodgkinson will have another attempt to beat the long-standing record at the European Championships in Birmingham next month, but will face heavy competition from Switzerland’s Audrey Werro.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith finished second to American Rai Benjamin in the men’s 400m with a time of 44.18secs, while there were podium finishes for Romell Glave in the men’s 100m and Max Burgin in the 800m.
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