Photo with thanks to Tim Hutchings
British Record! Josh lands Cram mark and PBs, too, for Neil and Jake
By Peter Jardine, Head of Communications
The World Indoors in Glasgow was just a couple of days away back in March when Steve Cram addressed the Lindsays Sports Forum in the city.
Cram joined a panel with Eilidh Doyle and our chief executive Colin Hutchison with Ian Beattie as compere.
The British track legend and BBC commentator was in top form as he regaled the audience with anecdotes and insights after many years in the sport.
Cram all but tipped Josh Kerr to follow up his World Champs win over 1500m in Budapest last summer with World Indoors gold in Glasgow in the Men’s 3000m final.
To this correspondent’s recall, he didn’t mention on that evening the prospect of losing a British Record to the coruscating Kerr – the Edinburgh AC prodigy who has risen to the very top of our sport via first a college career in the United States and then as a professional athlete.
But that’s what happened at the Prefontaine Classic in the Eugene Diamond League meet on Saturday as Josh won in 3:45.34 to take down Cram’s mark set almost four decades previously.
Fast finish as Josh heads Jakob in Eugene (photo by Matthew Quine)
‘I wanted to win the race and I knew it would take something along those lines (Steve’s Record) to win so, yes, it was in my mind but I wasn’t too focussed on the time,’ said Josh in Oregon.
‘I was comfortable in the first 800m and then, with 600m to go I just thought ‘Why not?’ and pushed ahead.’
Cram, for his part, must have known what was coming because his partner, former Scotland international Allison Curbishley, posted on Twitter: ‘Well, he called it!
‘Steve told me he though he would be passing over his 39-year-old British Mile Record today . . . and he wasn’t wrong. Take a bow, Josh, the new British Record holder for the Men’s Mile.’
‘The baton is passed on and it could not have gone to a more deserving guy. These Brits are creating their own Golden Era.’
Steve Cram at the Lindsays Sports Forum (photo by Jamie Simpson)
With Jakob Ingebrigtsen in second and American Jared Nuguse third, what a joy to watch Neil Gourley and Jake Wightman complete the top five. Both recorded PB runs – Neil at 3:47.74 and Jake and 3:47.74.
Think about that for a moment: an aggregate three miles by three Scots in somewhere around 11 minutes on 20 seconds.
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