Josh Kerr believes his Sir Roger Bannister-inspired mile world record in London is only a step towards being “remembered alongside the legends” of British athletics.
The 28-year-old Scotsman crossed the Diamond League finish in three minutes 42.66 seconds, 0.47secs faster than the previous holder, Hicham El Guerrouj, whose mark of 3:43.13 had stood for 27 years.
Kerr, the 2023 world 1500 metres champion, summoned sceptics when in March he announced his intention to wipe out the Moroccan’s time in London, but he backed up his bravado in front of a 60,000-capacity crowd, revealing he knew he was going to make it happen within the first 400m.
“I talk constantly and I know I annoy people with that,” said Kerr, “And I really apologise to be honest, but to be able to be remembered alongside the legends that we have in the sport, especially in the UK, I have to run records to even be up against those guys.
“I’m following in the footsteps of the giants and to be able to bring that back here and back home in London, with the likes of Lord Coe in here and the likes of Crammy (Steve Cram) in here, that’s all I can do for the sport and hopefully that brings pride back to them as well.”
Kerr, who trains in Albuquerque in the United States, joins a select group of British men who have broken the mile record, including Coe, Cram and Steve Ovett, who did it six times between them in the late 1970s and 1980s.
But it was Bannister’s landmark 3mins 59.4secs from 1954, the first time the four-minute barrier had been broken, that Kerr kept thinking about and what ultimately fuelled him to believe this spectacular finish was feasible.
“Everyone is asking, ‘Who was it? Was it you chasing the current world record, is it that world record holder? Is it some of the previous British world record holders?’,” he said. “But it wasn’t. To be honest, it was Sir Roger Bannister.
“Being able to wrap your mind around a number that hasn’t ever been broken. It’s something that is very difficult to do.
“It wasn’t, ‘Can I break the world record?’. The mantra in the first two months of this project was, ‘We’re not chasing world records, we’re creating the conditions where world records become inevitable’.”
The Olympic silver medallist, who was sixth on the all-time list heading into this meeting, immediately credited pacemakers Brannon Kidder and Zan Rudolf – the latter a last-minute replacement, swapped in a week ago – for “setting the tone”.
The question Kerr and his team asked themselves was not whether he could do it, but what if it was easy?
He explained: “It was easy today, not to say that the record was easy to run, but when you put yourself in the river and you don’t fight it, you’re just flowing down.
“But it wasn’t a war. If you watch any experienced fighters, they’re not looking, they’re not swinging.
“All they’re doing is they’re waiting for their moment and they’re going to pounce at it. My moment was 400 to go and I’m going to start squeezing, I’m going to start putting the pace to a place that no one else can withstand.
“I’m butter within a hot pan. I’m just going to start sizzling away and start staying loose and it was a fun time out there.”
