Josh Kerr's stunning mile world record may not even represent his full potential, with coach Danny Mackey insisting the British star still has another second to find after his historic run in London.
Record-Breaking Performance
Kerr broke a world record that had held for more than a quarter of a century, but the scary part is that his coach is adamant he can go even quicker. In erasing Hicham El Guerrouj's mile world record from the history books, Kerr cemented his place as one of the all-time greats of British middle-distance running. His time of 3:42.66 was 0.47 seconds quicker than the Moroccan great had managed in Rome 27 years ago and completed his Project 222 – the number of seconds required to break the record.
Coach's Confidence
But for Danny Mackey, who has coached Kerr to Olympic medals, world titles and now this world record, he is capable of going even faster. He said: “Based on a couple of his workouts, I think if the weather had been better he probably could have run 3:41. I think there was another second there. That's scary.”
Mackey added: “That's probably the most emotional I've been. When he won the world title, he wasn't the favourite. The year before hadn't gone the way he wanted, and we knew he could do it, but there wasn't this huge expectation on him. He's really unusual. We're in the tunnel right now, and most people, even if they're not racing, find this overwhelming. But he's different. He likes that kind of pressure.”
Legacy and Future Plans
Kerr's world record puts him in the same stratosphere as the British middle-distance legends of the 1980s, two of whom were in attendance in London on Saturday – World Athletics president Lord Coe and BBC commentator Steve Cram. Lord Coe, who held this record three times, backed Kerr to flourish after continuing the legacy that dates all the way back to Sir Roger Bannister's iconic sub four-minute mile. He said: “I think this will have blown the wall away, he will go on to do incredible things. It's just nice to see it back in the hands of a Brit. We've had a few but he's as good as they get.”
Kerr planned to have a beer, or maybe two, to celebrate with his family and team, who have sacrificed a lot in this world record attempt. But there will be no time off, with a home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow just around the corner and redemption to be had. Mackey added: “We'll have to switch gears quickly for the Commonwealth Games. We'll go back to what we're used to, which is championship racing and tactics. We haven't really been training specifically for that, so hopefully he's fit enough to handle it. It's important to him. At the last Commonwealth Games he'd had COVID after Worlds and struggled there as well, so doing well this time matters a lot, especially in front of a home crowd.”
