This is the third story by Stuart Weir on one of our favorite meets, the 2025 London Diamond League, which was held on 19 July 2025. Stuart Weir is the RunBlogRun senior write for Europe. Stuart Weir has written for our blog since 2015.
The Men’s 1500 truly delivered! by Stuart Weir
The final event in the London Diamond League was the men’s 1500m. It had been billed as another rematch – Josh Kerr v Jakob Ingebrigtsen – but Jakob had to pull out with injury.
The race still had a lot going for it. The Scottish championship with Josh Kerr, Jake Wightman, and Neil Gourley all in the race.An opportunity for George Mills, who had run a big PR of 3:28.36 (third fastest in the world this year) in Paris last month, to show a home crowd his 2025 form. A chance for GB athletes to test themselves in a strong race!
The pacemakers had been told to run the first two laps to set up an attempt on the British record. Unfortunately , no one had told Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech that he was there to make up the numbers.
Keoch won in 3:28.82. Keoch is 19 and ran a PR in Paris last month (3:27.72). He said afterwards,“I thank God for this day. I was not expecting to run like that today. The field was very powerful and I enjoyed racing against them all today. I was thinking about all the big guys running fast, so I had to stay focused. Tactics did not go to plan, I just had to go with 200m to the finish”.
Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech, photo by Getty Images for British Athletics
As far as the unofficial Scottish Championship went: 2 Josh Kerr 3:29.374, 4. Jake Wighman 3:31.58, and 10. Neil Gourley 3:33.69
George Mills’ finishing time was recorded as 4:18.37, after being tripped on the last lap, picking himself up and running to the finish. He had looked strong, leading for a bit but was then deprived of a chance to show what he could do. (Editor’s note:Mills required surgery for a broken wrist ).
Josh Kerr said of his race: “In general I really liked how I felt in the whole race. I felt like I made a solid move at 250, I just did not have my head on straight with 200m to go, and I let them go a little bit. The power was not quite there, but it is not far away. But we have not run a race like that for a while. To be running 3:29 at this point of the season is encouraging, and I know I can make some jumps over the next couple of months”.
Since 2015, Stuart Weir has written for RunBlogRun. He attends about 20 events a year including all most global championships and Diamond Leagues. He enjoys finding the quirky and obscure story.
