by Larry Eder
Updated February 12, 2023
The Men’s 3000 meters was a tremendous race, with some of the finest middle and long-distance runners in North America. The race was won by Josh Kerr in exciting fashion, in front of an enthusiastic crowd at the Nike T&F Armory.
at The Armory Track
New York, NY
2023-02-11, photo by Josh Kerr
Josh is the 2021 Olympic bronze medalist at the 1,500 meters and ran both the World Champs and Commonwealth Games suffering from COVID last summer. He ran several 1,500ms ends of the season in the 3:32 range, showing that he was most unfortunate to get COVID during his build-up.
Danny Mackey, the coach of Josh Kerr, told us about how they spent the two years prior to the Olympics building for a medal performance. Josh Kerr has those same goals about the 1,500m in Budapest. (You can see a feature on their coach/athlete dynamics here)
In December 2022, as part of his build-up, Josh Kerr took 4th in the San Diego Holiday Half Marathon in 1:03.45, after having run, the week before a fine 20 x 300m workout.
We were looking forward to Josh Kerr opening his 2023 season. Our thoughts were expressed in Coffee With Larry on Saturday morning. During the program, we spoke about the races, and we pumped up the Men’s 3000m, and the fine field. My comment was, “Josh Kerr would not race unless he was ready.”
In his first race of the 2023 season, Josh Kerr and Danny Mackey picked the 3000m at the Millrose Games. The field was awesome. Last year’s winner was Geordie Beamish, last year’s #2, Cooper Teare, 12:54 5000m guy, Joe Klecker, 4th in Worlds Luis Grijalva, who had just run a 3:53 NR mile!
The race went off well, with AJ Ernst leading through 2k, in 2:30.92, and 2:35.11/5:06.03, before leaving the track.
Luis Grijalva, Cooper Teare, and Josh Kerr were all there, as Kerr, in fifth place, at 1k in 2:32.37, and in sixth at 5:07.28 (2:34.92), looked menacing.
Klecker, Grijalva, and Teare were all there, with Teare ahead of all at 2k.
Josh Kerr could have probably moved anywhere over the last kilometer, which he ran in 2:26. He waited, like any good miler, until the last 400 meters, really pushing it over the last 200 meters. Luis Grijalva and Cooper Teare were pushing the pace, trying to break the field. The Scottish Olympic medalist did not break, he seemed ready to move!
at The Armory Track
New York, NY
2023-02-11, photo by Kevin Morris
Josh Kerr waited until the last two laps to make a move, running 27 seconds for the penultimate lap and then, flying by Grijalva and Klecker, taking no prisoners, with a final furlong in 26 seconds.
Josh Kerr’s 7:33.47 was a meet record, and all eleven finishers recorded PBs and or NRs!
Josh Kerr is fit and he used his Beast Master face over the last 200 meters, to put some distance on his competitors.
The road to Budapest has already begun.
at The Armory Track
New York, NY
2023-02-11, photo by Kevin Morris
To learn more about Josh Kerr, check out the interview from last week: https://www.runblogrun.com/2023/02/josh-kerr-brooks-beasts-tc-olympic-bronze-medalist-1500m-answers-7-questions-from-runblogrun.html
To read our long interview with Josh Kerr, from 2021, please go here: https://www.runblogrun.com/2021/09/runblogrun-presents-socialing-the-distance-featuring-josh-kerr-professional-athlete-with-the-brooks.html
