Britain's Josh Kerr obliterates 27-year-old men's mile benchmark in breathtaking effort

Josh Kerr, the British runner who helped stoke a revival in middle-distance drama on the track, added a new chapter Saturday by running the mile in 3 minutes, 42.66 seconds to break the 27-year-old world record for the distance.

At a Diamond League meet in London, Kerr broke Moroccan great Hicham El Guerrouj’s mark of 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds, set in Rome in 1999. The 28-year-old native of Edinburgh celebrated with a lap of honour at London Stadium.

“It was just me, my shoes and the track,” he said. “I was absolutely deaf in that last 110 meters."

Kerr finished more than three seconds clear of American Yared Nuguse's second-place time of 3:45.69.

In an interview with the BBC, Kerr said the crowd support as he closed in on the record was “just incredible.”

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“I didn't take my foot off the gas," he continued, “but… I started to glide, and I was like ‘Oh wow, this feels incredible.’ It's incredible because I'm slowing down. So, I was like, ‘I better get to the line.’ So, crossing the finish line, seeing 42-something — anything — was my goal, so it was great.”

The 28-year-old Kerr’s previous best time was 3:45.34 in 2024.

Kerr, the 2023 world champion, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the 2021 Olympic champion, put a charge in the slightly shorter but more widely contested 1,500-meter race in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics. They went back and forth online and on the track over a number of issues, including Kerr's suggestion that his rival could only run his top times with the help of pacesetters, the likes of which aren't allowed at major championships.

When the Paris Games rolled around, Ingebrigtsen faded to fourth while American Cole Hocker pulled a huge upset, with Kerr finishing second.

Last year at the world championships, Ingebrigtsen faltered in a preliminary heat while Kerr pulled up lame and limped into the finish in a final won by Issac Nader of Portugal.

This year, with no worlds or Olympics on the schedule, Kerr made the mile his key target. It's a distance that isn't run as much in big events, but that still has major historical significance, most of it surrounding Roger Bannister's breaking of the once-intimidating four-minute barrier in 1954.