Josh Kerr just rewrote the record books in one of track and field’s most storied events.
The British runner clocked 3 minutes, 42.66 seconds in the mile at a Diamond League meet in London on Saturday, breaking a world record that had stood since 1999. The previous mark, 3:43.13, belonged to Moroccan runner Hicham El Guerrouj, set nearly three decades earlier in Rome.
Kerr, 28, finished more than three seconds ahead of the field, with American Yared Nuguse crossing next in 3:45.69. Afterward, the Edinburgh native took a celebratory lap around London Stadium.
Kerr described the final stretch of the race as an out-of-body experience. “It was just me, my shoes and the track,” he told the BBC. “I was absolutely deaf in that last 110 meters.” He said he could feel himself easing up near the finish line, in the best possible way. “I started to glide, and I was like, ‘Oh wow, this feels incredible,'” he said, adding that simply seeing “42-something” on the clock as he crossed the line was exactly the goal he’d set for himself.
The record breaks Kerr’s own previous personal best of 3:45.34, set in 2024, by nearly three full seconds. Ahead of the race, Kerr told Yahoo Sports he felt ready for the moment: “My body is capable of the mark, and so my job tomorrow is to have my mind to be available to let my body do its job.”
Behind the scenes, Kerr’s preparation reportedly had a name: “Project 222,” a nod to the 222 seconds it would take to break the record. His sponsor, Brooks, built him a custom racing suit designed with laser-cut perforations to manage heat and humidity, along with a pair of spikes engineered around Kerr’s specific running mechanics, including his stride pattern and push-off style.
The mile isn’t an Olympic or World Championship event, but it holds a legendary place in track history, most notably as the distance Roger Bannister famously broke the four-minute barrier in back in 1954, another milestone credited to a British runner.
