Josh Kerr smashes two records in one

The Olympic bronze medallist pulled out a monumental surge over the second half of the race to clock the third-fastest indoor mile in history of 3:48.87 and claim victory at the Last Chance Meet in Boston.

By knocking over three seconds from Elliot’s mile best set in New Jersey in 1990, the 24-year-old also swiped away the European record from Irish legend Eamonn Coghlan.

And his 1,500m split of 3:32.85 also obliterated the Yorkshireman’s other 32-year-old domestic indoor record from the history books by over a second.

Kerr said: “We were able to get paced pretty perfectly. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation. I’m super pumped. Those are hard records to get.

“There is 60 years of history out there. But I thought I feel fit, I feel ready, let’s go for it and see how fast we can go.”

His mile time now leaves the Edinburgh AC runner trailing only Ethiopia’s Yomof Kejelcha and Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj in the all-time rankings and was quicker than Piers Copeland’s winning time over 1500m in the British Championships on Sunday.

But Kerr, now based in the United States, had already decided to pass up on hunting a first major title at next month’s world indoors, opting for a little piece of history with a little less travelling.

He said: “We thought it was a good decision and it’s turned out to be a pretty solid one.”

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