{"id":85655,"date":"2026-07-18T19:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T19:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/85655\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T19:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T19:26:19","slug":"how-josh-kerr-mastered-the-mile-to-join-british-royalty-with-astonishing-world-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/85655\/","title":{"rendered":"How Josh Kerr mastered the mile to join British royalty with astonishing world record"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

Josh Kerr<\/a> never had any doubt that he could take down a legendary record and perhaps the rest of us should have believed him from the start.<\/p>\n

A world champion, an Olympic medallist and now the owner of the mile world record,<\/a> Kerr was cheered to the rafters at the London Stadium as he smashed Hicham El Guerrouj\u2019s 27-year-old mark.<\/p>\n

Back in March, Kerr announced that he would be going after one of the most prestigious records in the sport, and he came through on his promise with a stunning run to cross the line in 3:42.66, taking 0.47 seconds off the previous best.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Kerr of Team Great Britain celebrates after winning and setting a new world record (Getty)<\/p>\n

His Project 222 \u2013 the number of seconds required to better El Guerrouj\u2019s 1999 effort \u2013 involved ice baths lasting exactly three minutes and 42 seconds, an altitude room in his Albuquerque home and experts in biomechanics, aerodynamics and physiology to ensure he had the best spikes and speed suit for the attempt.<\/p>\n

By the time he got to the line for the Wanda Diamond League<\/a> event, Kerr knew that he was capable of breaking the record. And 400m in, he was sure he was going to do it.<\/p>\n

\"Britain'sBritain’s Josh Kerr celebrates after breaking the men’s 1 mile world record (Reuters)<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI knew I had it in the first 400 because my pacemakers did an incredible job. There were variables that were going to set me back and that is if the pacemakers didn\u2019t do a good job, if the wind was there. It was in the legs, it was always going to be in the legs.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone was asking whether it was chasing the current world record, that world record holder (El Guerrouj), some of the previous British world record holders, but it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, it was Sir Roger Bannister (and the four-minute mile), being able to wrap your mind around a number that hasn\u2019t ever been broken. It\u2019s the reason it was Project 222, it wasn\u2019t \u2018can I break the world record?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mantra in the first two months of this project was that we\u2019re not chasing world records, we\u2019re creating the conditions where world records become inevitable. That was my biggest goal, I came out today and it was \u2018get out of your head and into your body\u2019 and my body was capable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Kerr of Team Great Britain celebrates after winning the 1 Mile Men’s Final (Getty)<\/p>\n

Not everyone thought the world record was inevitable, even Lord Coe, in attendance in his role as the President of World Athletics wondered if Kerr had raced enough to pull off such a feat.<\/p>\n

He knows exactly what it takes to break this record, he did it three times, exchanging it with Steve Ovett in the golden period of British middle-distance running, while Steve Cram \u2013 the last Brit to hold the record \u2013 was on commentary.<\/p>\n

Kerr had already started to approach those legends, and this performance puts him even closer to their remarkable legacies.<\/p>\n

Lord Coe said: \u201cI think this will have blown the wall away, he will go on to do incredible things. It\u2019s just nice to see it back in the hands of a Brit. We\u2019ve had a few but he\u2019s as good as they get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ironically, for a man who is always willing to talk the talk, Kerr apologised for doing so after making history, having also broken his own 1500m British record along the way with a split of 3:27.62.<\/p>\n

\"Britain'sBritain’s Josh Kerr celebrates at the London Diamond League (Reuters)<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI talk constantly and I know I annoy people with that and I really apologise. But to be able to be remembered alongside the legends we have in the sport, especially in the UK, I have to run those records to be even up against those guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m following in the footsteps of the giants and to be able to bring that back here in London, with the likes of Lord Coe and Crammy here, that is all I can do for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kerr\u2019s world record was obviously the highlight of an afternoon of high drama at the London Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Kerr of Team Great Britain celebrates after winning the 1 Mile Men’s Final and setting a new World Record (Getty)<\/p>\n

Mondo Duplantis, arguably the biggest star in the sport, was forced to withdraw with an adductor issue in the men\u2019s pole vault, continuing one of the more unlikely records in the sport.<\/p>\n

The man who has broken the world record 15 times has still never won at the London Stadium, finishing ninth on World Championship debut there in 2017 before coming third at the Anniversary Games a year later.<\/p>\n

He will hope to be fit for the European Championships in Birmingham next month after settling for second behind Sam Kendricks.<\/p>\n

Keely Hodgkinson claimed her first outdoor win of the season in the women\u2019s 800m, the final race of the competition. While her time of 1:56.21 was not what she had hoped for, it was still a welcome success after a challenging few months since claiming a world indoor title in March.<\/p>\n

World 100m champion Oblique Seville also suffered a second defeat to Nigeria\u2019s Kayinsola Ajayi, who ran a national record of 9.84 to back up his Prefontaine Classic win over the Jamaican.<\/p>\n

Novuna is the Official Finance Partner of British Athletics and proud sponsor of the GB & NI Athletics. Find out more at www.novuna.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[6855,13,6856],"class_list":["post-85655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-bestof","tag-britain","tag-topix"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116942627857015574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}