Saturday scrap ends with emotional Kerr winning fight
Saturday scrap ends with emotional Kerr winning fight
- Published
There were no pacers. No wave lights. No declarations about what time he would run or what record he would beat. This was a Saturday night scrap - Glasgow rules - and Josh Kerr wasn't going to let anyone beat him in that fight.
Not his childhood pal and Scotland team-mate Jake Wightman. Not the Australian prodigy Cam Myers. Not the former Olympic silver medallist Timothy Cheruiyot.
This Commonwealth Games men's mile was his race, in his country, in front of his people. This gold medal really meant something.
Kerr's explosion of joy after he crossed the line and swaddled himself in a Saltire - having conducted the crowd during his final few strides - made that clear.
And so did his halting attempts to sing along with Flower of Scotland, the 28-year-old repeatedly stopping to bite his lip before wiping away tears from each eye.
"We rush through these moments so quickly," Kerr told BBC Sport Scotland, having spent the best part of 45 minutes doing selfies and signatures. "So I was just telling myself to slow down.
"In my head, I was flashing through all the hard moments and realising that I've come a long way. And to have Flower of Scotland playing versus the GB national anthem, it's just different. Not many times in my career I'll ever have that."
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'I've had some pretty bad ones out there'
When Kerr crossed the line, the clock showed he was almost eight seconds slower than when running the fastest time ever for the mile in London last month. Three minutes 54.12 seconds.
What it didn't show was that for three of the four laps, this was more rammy than race.
Emerging between fireworks, Kerr had strutted out on to the track, spinning a bottle, and allowed his 12 rivals to sprint away. Only once they checked and began to run back did he stretch his own legs and acknowledge the crowd. Aura.
The 28-year-old also made sure to position himself between Myers and Cheruiyot on the start line. A flex, perhaps, but why not? Kerr has the credentials, after all. Former world champion, Olympic silver and bronze, the big dog in this fight.
And he needed all of his snarl and bite to survive the three laps of jostling, barging and bumping that followed.
The race was slow, too slow. And physical, really physical. Could Kerr - trapped in the pack, pinned to the kerb - deal with that? "As long as you stay on your feet, it's fine," was his assessment afterwards.
'Flower of Scotland is just different' - emotional Kerr
At the time, Kerr gave his answer as the bell tolled. In a flash, he made his move, bursting to the outside in pursuit of Myers and Cheruiyot, who made theirs momentarily first.
With 250m to go, Kerr left them behind. Wightman gamely tried to follow but how do you chase down a man this fast? His brave gamble failed and the bronze medallist from the last two Games trailed home in sixth.
By then, Kerr was already celebrating gold, with Myers coming through for silver and Cheruiyot bronze.
"I peeked up at the screen, saw I had a bit of a gap, and I felt great," added the Edinburgh athlete, who has been racing at Scotstoun since he was a child.
"I was just trying to stay present and enjoy it. I learned how to race on that track - and I've had some pretty bad ones out there - so to really enjoy that last 100m was a really important moment."
It was the moment Glasgow 2026 has been building to. The historic, reinstated, Blue Riband event of these Games got a fittingly elite winner. As a student of the sport's history, Kerr will appreciate that.
And as a kid who was at the athletics event at Hampden in 2014, he knew how much joy every man, women and child inside this place would derive from every picture he had taken, every word he shared with them, and every scrawl of his name.
"I have to take my time out there because they've waited and put their hard-earned money to come out and watch me perform," he said.
"You've got to stay in your lane and realise I'm lucky coming into this championship healthy, ready to go and I'm in the best shape of my life. And to do that in front of a home crowd is very special."