Kerr walks walk after talking talk
Brit sets national record in Bowerman Mile to defeat Ingebrigtsen in Pre Classic
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F0598e756-9abc-4d01-b42d-e2be488b3372_8001x5334.jpeg)
EUGENE, Oregon — The long-awaited rematch between Josh Kerr of Great Britain and Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway resulted in a superb men’s mile race in the Prefontaine Classic at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field on Saturday. And at the end of it, the 26-year-old Kerr ran a yearly world-leading time of 3 minutes 45.34 seconds to the 3:45.60 clocking of second-place Ingebrigtsen.
Kerr’s time crushed his previous best of 3:48.87, but more importantly, it gave him his second consecutive victory over defending Olympic 1,500-meter champion Ingebrigtsen and broke the British record of 3:46.32 that had been a world record when Steve Cram ran it in 1985.
It was also the 10th-fastest mile in history and moved Kerr to sixth on the all-time performer list.
“I was just excited to go out and race against a world-class field and show that I’m still the best and do well,” Kerr said when he was asked about his pre-race goal.
He later added that the national record was a by-product of achieving that goal.
“Today, it was about how can I win this race, and if I ended up winning this race, it was probably going to be under 3:46.”
Behind Kerr and Ingebrigtsen, who ran the 11th-fastest mile in history, Yared Nuguse of the U.S. finished third in 3:46.22, followed by the British duo of Neil Gourley and Jake Wightman, who ran personal bests of 3:47.74 and 3:47.83, respectively.
Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot of Kenya finished sixth in 3:48.59 and American Cole Hocker placed seventh in 3:48.95 in a race in which nine men ran under 3:50.
Kerr had upset Ingebrigtsen for the 1,500-meter title in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, last August when Ingebrigtsen said he was suffering from a virus that left him at less than 100 percent.
The Norwegian star then gave credence to those remarks when he ran the No. 3 times in history in both the mile (3:43.73) and the 3,000 meters (7:23.63) in winning those events on consecutive days in the Prefontaine Classic that served as the Diamond League Finals last September.
Kerr did not run in that meet, but he made some critical remarks about Ingebrigtsen during the offseason in which he basically stated that the 23-year-old Norwegian was very difficult to beat when he followed a pacesetter for the first 800 or so meters of a race, but he was vulnerable to defeat in global championship races in which there were no pacesetters.
Various injuries led to Ingebrigtsen withdrawing from the European Cross Country Championships in December and to him scrapping the indoor track season. However, he made a back-handed compliment about Kerr after the Scotsman had set a world indoor record of 8:00.67 in the two-mile in the Millrose Games in New York City in February.
While he said Kerr’s performance showed he was making progress, Ingebrigtsen added that if he were healthy, he could have won the race with one hand tied behind his back.
More recently, he stated that winning his second consecutive Olympic 1,500 title should not be a problem if he is healthy and his training has gone well in the months leading up to the Games.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe69c06b2-8658-42eb-8a2f-2ae10914761d_8001x5334.jpeg)
All of the banter between the two runners contributed to an eagerly anticipated clash in the Bowerman Mile on Saturday.
American pacesetter Abraham Alvarado brought the field through the first 400 meters in 55.91 seconds and the 800 in 1:52.74 before dropping out of the race.
Kenyan Abel Kipsang, Ingebrigtsen, Nuguse, and Wightman were occupying the top four places at that point in the race, but Kerr was not far behind them and he had taken the lead by the end of the backstretch with a lap and a half left in the race.
He then clocked 2:50.70 at 1,200 meters before keeping all of his competitors at bay during the last lap. Ingebrigtsen tried mightily to mount a serious challenge to Kerr in the final straightaway, but the Brit was able to stay well clear of him.
“I knew that if I executed today, I was going to hopefully come away with a win,” Kerr said.
Although he was not thrilled about finishing second, Ingebrigtsen said he was satisfied about running under 3:46 while racing for the first time since his sensational double in last year’s Prefontaine Classic.
Kerr, for his part, was happy with his win in a national-record time, but he said his current training load “is not anywhere near my peak right now. We’re consistently moving towards the Olympics so it doesn’t mean I can’t be fit when it comes to these races… 3:45 right now is good enough, but we’ve got to make some progress. These results are going to come when I’m building toward something special.”
American Joe Kovacs also spoke of progressing to better performances this summer after turning in a dominant performance in the men’s shot put in which he produced the second-longest put of his career at 23.13 meters (75 feet 10¾ inches) and had the six longest marks of the competition.
Payton Otterdahl of the U.S. finished second at 22.16 (72-8 ), followed by Chukwuebuka Enekwechi of Nigeria at 21.91 (71-10¾).
Kovacs, who is one of only four men in history to have put the shot 23 meters (75-5½) or farther, hit 22.46 (73-8¼) on his first attempt before improving to a yearly world-leading distance of 23.03 (75-6¾) on his second.
He followed that with puts of 22.60 (74-1¾), 22.46 (73-8¼), and 22.53 (73-11) before unleashing his 23.13 (75-10¾) effort on his sixth — and — final attempt.
“I’m always proud when I can do that,” Kovacs said about registering his best put on his final effort. “When you can keep your composure and do your best or better in the last round. It just gives me really good confidence that way. That I’m in really good shape. My body’s good. My rhythm’s good. I don’t need some crazy stimulus to do well. I can go in the ring when they call my name and do well.”
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6d101fad-f4b6-47b2-995d-8e20af5f784e_8001x5334.jpeg)
In addition to Kerr and Kovacs, Daniel Mateiko of Kenya and Grant Holloway of the U.S. also turned in yearly world-leading marks in the men’s meet that consisted of seven events.
Mateiko, who was best known as a half marathon runner entering the meet, won the 10,000 meters in 26:50.81 and three-time defending World champion Holloway took the 110 high hurdles in 13.03.
With the men’s 10,000 serving as the Olympic trials race — at least for the first two of three spots — for Kenya, it was a highly competitive race in which six men broke 27 minutes.
American AJ Ernst served as the pacesetter for the first three kilometers and he came through 1,000 meters in 2:41.41, 2,000 in 5:23.00, and 3,000 in 8:04.01.
Kenyan Nicholas Kipkorir led for much of the next six kilometers, clocking 13:28.14 at 5,000 meters and 24:17.41 at 9,000.
Five Kenyans were still in contention for the win when they began the bell lap, but Mateiko emerged as the narrow winner ahead of Kipkorir in 26:50.94, Benard Kibet in 26:51.09, and Edwin Kurgat in 26:51.54.
Mateiko, Kipkorir, and Kibet all recorded personal bests.
“I’m so very, very happy for this win,” Mateiko said in quotes on the meet website. “This is my second time competing here in a Eugene track and I’m so very happy. I was not expecting this one despite the fact that I was doing the marathon training.”
Holloway won his third race of the season without a loss in the high hurdles, and like the first two, he was not seriously challenged for the victory as his 13.03 clocking put him a tenth of a second in front of fellow American Daniel Roberts at 13.13. Compatriot Freddie Crittenden finished third in 13.16.
In other men’s events, Americans Christian Coleman and Kenny Bednarek won the 100 and 200 meters, respectively, with times of 9.95 and 19.89 seconds, and Gerald Drummond of Costa Rica took the 400 intermediate hurdles in 48.56.
Coleman got off to one of his typically good starts and then held off Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya, who placed second in 9.98.
Bednarek, who won his third 200-meter race of the season without a loss, came off the turn with a small lead over fellow American Courtney Lindsey. But he expanded his advantage substantially in the home straightaway as he finished two tenths of a second in front of runner-up Lindsey.
Drummond came from behind in the final straightway of the intermediate hurdles to finish well clear of second-place Rasmus Magi of Estonia at 48.85 and third-place CJ Allen of the U.S. at 48.99.