WILL THE TWO-MILE WORLD RECORD AT MILLROSE GIVE KERR THE GREEN LIGHT FOR GLASGOW?
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2024 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
NEW YORK (09-Feb) — As good as world 1500m champion Josh Kerr is at performing under pressure, he’s even better at resisting it.
After winning the world title last summer in Budapest, the 26-year-old Scotsman skipped the Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene, much to the chagrin of Diamond League and World Athletics officials. Instead, he closed his season the weekend before with a victory at the rainy New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile here. He just didn’t see the point in extending his season by another week when he was already feeling tired.
“It’s been a lot every day,” Kerr told reporters last September. “Obviously, very new to me to win a major (title). So, it’s been a lot of media every day and it’s been, like, mentally draining and tiring. You know, I committed to this race and I really wanted to do it, and I’m just mentally very tired.”
Throughout the fall and winter, Kerr has been asked whether he would run in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow next month, a rare opportunity for a Scotsman to compete in a global championship on home soil. Kerr’s compatriot Laura Muir has already embraced the chance to run for gold at the beautiful Emirates Arena, but Kerr remains undecided. He said here today that after running the two miles at the Millrose Games on Sunday, where he is targeting Mo Farah’s world best of 8:03.40, he’ll finally make his decision on Glasgow with his Brooks Beasts Track Club coach Danny Mackey.
“I think that decision will be made after this weekend,” he told Race Results Weekly in an interview at a midtown hotel. “So, people will probably know after this weekend what I’m going to do. You know, look, I’m just looking to compete at a high level. I would love more than anything to run World Indoors, but it has to make sense. My body can’t fight me on it.”
Kerr, who first ran at Millrose while he was a student-athlete at the University of New Mexico in 2018, likes the idea of opening his 2024 Olympic campaign with an over-distance race. After running a 1:01:51 (downhill) half-marathon in San Diego last December, Kerr came to New York from the high altitude of Albuquerque, where he had been training with the Beasts. A two-mile feels…
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at runblogrun…