Nice Britain’s middle-distance star Josh Kerr has set his sights on one of the crucial difficult information in monitor and area, asserting that he’ll try to interrupt the boys’s mile world report on the London Diamond League on July 18 as a part of “Undertaking 222.”
The report Kerr is chasing belongs to Morocco’s Hicham El Guerroujwho ran 3:43.13 in Rome in 1999, and has stood for greater than 25 years. Kerr is concentrating on extra than simply the report—”Undertaking 222″ refers to his purpose of working 222 seconds for the mile, a time of three:42 flat.
Kerr’s historic outcomes
The 28-year-old is already one of the crucial completed milers in historical past. He gained the 1,500m world title in 2023, and has gained two Olympic medals within the occasion—bronze in Tokyo and silver in Paris. Kerr not too long ago added one other world title with gold within the indoor 3,000m.
His mile private greatest of three:45.34, set on the Prefontaine Traditional, is a British report and locations him sixth on the all-time record. Kerr says this report has lengthy been one thing he hoped to attain. “It’s been an enormous purpose of my profession,” he informed BBC Sport. “It’s one of many oldest world information on the monitor and I feel it’s one of the crucial vital ones.”
World Athletics Championships, Tokyo, Japan, 2025. Photograph: Kevin Morris
Why now?
With no outside world championships on the schedule (World Athletics Championships run each two years in odd-numbered seasons), Kerr has extra freedom to design his season round a single efficiency, and he needs to do it on his house turf. “It was a non-negotiable to do it within the U.Okay.,” he says. “It’s time to deliver the mile world report house.” The London Diamond League meet provides Kerr a well-recognized setting and a house crowd for the try.
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Inside Undertaking 222
The occasion is a collaboration with Brooks, Kerr’s sponsor. As reported by FloTrack, the corporate is creating customized race-day gear for Kerr, together with spikes tailor-made to his biomechanics, and testing velocity go well with ideas with the purpose of enhancing his effectivity. The Brooks Analysis Lab can also be working with Kerr to develop the very best methods round his sleep and hydration.
Kerr says the race is about embracing strain and taking an opportunity in entrance of a crowd. “It’s the hardest monitor and area world report proper now for my part,” Kerr informed FloTrack. “And that’s stood for the longest time, and there’s a motive for that.”
