A World mile record
In modern parlance, Josh Kerr had manifested. He had announced his intention ahead of time to launch an attack on the 27-year-old world mile record. And he pulled it off. The occasion was right, The London Diamond League, the venue was right The London (Olympic) stadium filled with a capacity 60,000 crowd. The race was right, the historic Emsley Carr mile. How fitting it was that the winner’s presentation was made by World Athletics President and former world mile record holder Seb Coe and the granddaughter of Emsley Carr.
Sometimes world records creep up on you almost unnoticed. This one was not like that. The attempt was announced in advance. The pace-lights enabled the crowd to know exactly where Kerr was in relation to the required time. He was never behind.
The two pace-makers did their job. Kerr immediately dropped in behind them. Yared Neguse behind Kerr. When the second pacemaker’s work was done, Kerr seemed to step up the pace and never let the lights overtake him.
At the pre-event press conference the day before, Kerr was asked if he had considered the possibility of the world record being broken in the race, but not by him! He readily admitted that there were others in the race who were indeed capable of breaking the existing world record, but he was confident that he would win the race.
Project 222 is the name Kerr gave to his quest to find the 222 seconds between his PR and Hicham EL Guerrouj’s world record. Kerr’s time was 3:42:66. Kerr said afterward: “It is very overwhelming. There was a lot of hype. I am surrounded by amazing people, so I have continued to put in the work, and I knew I had a 3:42 in me. I nearly lost it there at the end, but I got over the line. If I am to leave my mark on the sport, as a British athlete with the legends I have behind me, to follow in those footsteps, I have to deliver those performances. Those performances take every part of you, every part of your team. Out there, I am just the body, but there is an incredible amount of work behind the scenes. Today is a result of all that hard work. I am lucky to be able to string the training together. It felt like I had a kitchen full of incredible chefs, and they are like, what the heck are we going to make, and this is the dish I want to make, so let’s go to work and get the world record. The last lap was incredible. I was deaf in the last 100 meters”.
Yared Nuguse, second but three seconds behind, said: “That race was an amazing race to be a part of. What Josh did was so impressive. I am sure he was confident. I was feeling pretty good, but for that last 300m, he pulled away. I gave it my all, but I could not maintain the contact. This is still a really good race, and even though I couldn’t keep in contact, I can take plenty of positives into the rest of the year”.
For me a real “I was there moment”.
