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<\/p>\nJosh 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.<\/p>\n
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 honor at London Stadium.<\/p>\n
“It was just me, my shoes and the track,” he said. “I was absolutely deaf in that last 110 meters.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Josh Kerr of Team Great Britain celebrates after winning the 1 mile men’s final and setting a new world record during the Novuna London Athletics Meet, part of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League, at London Stadium on July 18, 2026, in London, England.<\/p>\n
Michael Steele \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
Kerr finished more than three seconds clear of American Yared Nuguse’s second-place time of 3:45.69.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the BBC, Kerr said the crowd support as he closed in on the record was “just incredible.”<\/p>\n
“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 \u2014 anything \u2014 was my goal, so it was great.”<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Kerr’s previous best time was 3:45.34 in 2024.<\/p>\n
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Great Britain’s Josh Kerr celebrates after breaking a world record in the men’s 1 mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium on July 18, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adam Davy\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n
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 leadup 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.<\/p>\n
When the Paris Games rolled around, Ingebrigtsen faded to fourth while American Cole Hocker pulled a huge upset, with Kerr finishing second.<\/p>\n
At the world championships last year, 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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