Josh Kerr Takes Down the Mile World Record That Stood for 27 Years

Josh Kerr broke the oldest record in middle-distance running on Saturday, winning the mile at the London Diamond League in 3:42.66 and erasing the 3:43.13 that Hicham El Guerrouj ran in Rome in 1999, a mark that had survived 27 years and 11 days.

Two pacers, Brannon Kidder and Zan Rudolf, brought Kerr through the first quarter in 55.3 and halfway in 1:51.1. From about 600 meters out he ran alone in front, with Yared Nuguse tracking him. The American held contact until roughly 250 meters to go, then faded to second in a season’s best of 3:45.69.

The time knocked 2.68 seconds off Kerr’s personal best of 3:45.34, which had placed him sixth on the all-time list, and landed within seven-tenths of a second of the target he had been announcing all summer.

How the Race Compared With Rome 1999

Kerr reached three-quarters in 2:46.39, which works out to quarters of roughly 55.3, 55.8, 55.4 and a closing lap of 54.9. He was ahead of El Guerrouj’s Rome pace at every checkpoint. According to World Athletics’ report from that night, the 1999 field passed the quarter in 55.07, halfway in 1:51.58 and three-quarters in 2:47.91 before El Guerrouj covered the final quarter in 55.22.

El Guerrouj saved his fastest running for the last lap, pulled along by Kenya’s Noah Ngeny, who finished in 3:43.40 and also broke the previous record that night. Kerr stayed calm in the opening half of his effort and spent the final 600 meters closing faster and faster, leaving Nuguse to fall behind. In the 27 years between the two races, only Jakob Ingebrigtsen had come within a second of El Guerrouj’s mark, running 3:43.73 in 2023.

No mile record had ever lasted so long. Before Saturday, the longest wait between ratified records was the nine years separating Gunder Hagg’s 4:01.4 in 1945 from Roger Bannister’s first sub-4:00 in 1954.

A Record Attempt That Went Exactly to Plan

Kerr announced this attempt months ago, branded it Project 222 with his sponsor Brooks, and named his target of 3:42, his venue, and his pacers in advance. His coach had identified the training benchmark that would signal the record was within reach, and on Thursday Kerr ran 2:42.45 for 1,200m in his final tuneup, faster than anyone had ever covered the distance.

Then there was Nuguse, who arrived in London holding the American record of 3:43.97, a faster mile than Kerr had ever run, and who turned the first three laps of the attempt into a race. The old record was made the same way: Ngeny pushed El Guerrouj all the way to the line in Rome.

Six Personal Bests Behind Him

The pace Kerr set pulled the field to one of the deepest miles ever run. Jake Heyward took third in a personal best of 3:46.73, and Germany’s Robert Farken ran a national record of 3:46.82 in fourth. Nathan Green (3:48.05), Arlo Ludewick (3:48.17), Thomas Keen (3:49.33), Samuel Prakel (3:49.63) and Archie Davis (3:51.09) all set personal bests behind them, six in the top 10 in all. Ludewick’s was the most dramatic, an improvement of more than 12 seconds.

Kerr, the 2023 world 1,500m champion and a two-time Olympic medalist, is the first Briton to hold the mile world record since Steve Cram in 1985, restoring a mark that Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, and Cram traded among themselves from 1979 until Noureddine Morceli took it in 1993. The time now goes to World Athletics for standard ratification, a process his team built the attempt around from the beginning.