Josh Kerr’s plan for the weekend: “To win”

Josh Kerr’s plan for the weekend is “To win.”

Josh Kerr has always been clear in his own mind that he wanted to run in the World Indoors in Glasgow, less than an hour from where he grew up.  When he spoke to British athletics writers in December, he admitted that he was having a difficult job persuading his American coach that going to Glasgow would not be a distraction from his only goal for 2024 – an Olympic gold. To be faithful, Josh also admitted that having a coach with no emotional attachment to Scotland or the UK helped make the decision more dispassionately.

When Josh met the UK writers again last week, he explained the process that led him to make it to the 3000m in Glasgow. He said that he had made a decision not to run in the GB Indoor Champs and selection trials, which he assumed would rule him out of selection for Glasgow.  Then, it was pointed out to him that GB selection criteria exempted Budapest medal winners from running the trials.  Kerr clarified with UK Athletics management that his Budapest gold could earn him selection in the 3000m, not just the 1500.

The next stage of the process showed great integrity on Kerr’s part.  He was not going to take a place if at the expense of a GB athlete who had the qualifying standard and who had run trials. He takes up the story, “I emailed back to UKA, look, I would love to do this, but I don’t want to take away a spot of someone eligible to go and race if they go through the correct standards and so that pretty much took the 1500 out of the conversation because we had a couple of guys in there that I thought were deserving of a spot, and, if they had the qualifying time, then they were good to go.

“So I then had conversations around the 3K and said, look. I think I’m in really good 3K shape. I’m going to run this two mile if I go and run fast, do you think I could be available for selection for 3K? And they said yeah. And so I said look, again, if someone else has run the qualifying standard and has qualified through British champs, then I will not take the spot off them, but if the spot’s there for me, then, I would love to go and do it. So that’s kind of the thought process that’s been happening this month and why I’ve been kind of quiet about…