Josh Kerr, a two-time Olympic 1500m medalist for Great Britain, is confident he can break the long-standing world record in the mile on Saturday at 10:36 a.m. ET at a Diamond League meet in London.
“It’s in my favor, for sure,” he said Friday. “My body is capable of the mark, and so my job tomorrow is to have my mind to be available to let my body do its job.”
Kerr, a 28-year-old Scot, announced in March his attempt to break the world record of 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds set by Moroccan Hicham El Guerrouj in 1999.
He called it “Project 222,” for the 222 seconds that equals 3 minutes, 42 seconds.
“It’s time for that record to have a real go at it,” Kerr said Friday, “and I’m going to be that guy to do it.”
Since El Guerrouj’s world record race in Rome in 1999, the closest any man has come to the mile record time was when Tokyo Olympic 1500m gold medalist Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway ran six tenths shy of it at the 2023 Prefontaine Classic.
Kerr’s best time is 3:45.34 — more than two seconds shy of the record — from winning the 2024 Pre Classic, his only time racing a mile on an outdoor track in the last seven years.
The mile (1,609 meters) is rarely contested at the top international level. It is not on the Olympic or World Championships programs.
Saturday’s field will have pacemakers in front of Kerr, plus an international field including Americans Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler, who finished third and fifth in the Paris Olympic 1500m -- where Kerr took silver behind American Cole Hocker.
“My goal is to get to 1200 (meters) as smooth as I can and see what I’ve got left in that last 400 to go out and fight for it,” Kerr said.
