Selfies, signatures & social media - how Kerr embraced Glasgow Games
Selfies, signatures & social media - how Kerr embraced Glasgow Games
- Published
Josh Kerr didn't get much sleep last night. "There's no time for that. Glasgow on the weekend, mate, it's bouncing," the Scot said with a slight croak in his voice.
The response - 11 hours after his Commonwealth Games mile victory - was entirely in keeping with the way Kerr has conducted himself this week. Embedded with Team Scotland, back home among his own people, and absolutely revelling in it.
Look at his social media. Reels of the 28-year-old running around the streets of the city. In its parks and on its tracks. Pictures of him loosening off under a Kingston Bridge flyover in a hotel car park. Images of him engaging with the crowd.
His crowd, the people who came to see the mile world record holder on Saturday night.
Among them were Kerr's grandparents and nephews, his first ever coach, and his training partners from when he was 11 or 12.
There were hundreds of awestruck kids, too. Some of them budding athletes themselves. Others who might now want to be. Just like Kerr was when the Games came to Glasgow in 2014, with dreams of emulating those he saw race at Hampden.
That memory was in mind as the Edinburgh athlete slowly worked his way back down the home straight from the podium after his emotional medal ceremony.
It's why every fan who asked for a selfie got one. Why he signed his name over and over again. Why he gave them his time and his attention. Sure, Kerr was soaking up his moment of glory, but he was giving something back too.
"I'm just trying to create a moment for them," he told BBC Sport Scotland.
"There is absolutely nothing stopping any of them going out and doing what I've just done.
"I believe if you grow up in Scotland, you can be one of the best runners in the history of these distances. I'm not doing anything outrageously special."
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Plenty would quibble with Kerr on that. After all, covering four laps and change in three minutes 42.66 seconds to set a new world record - having told people exactly when and how you're going to do it - seems both outrageous and special.
He was nowhere near as quick as that at a blustery Scotstoun but, even though he took just over 11 seconds more to complete the 1,609m, the Scot still put on a show on a track where he used to race - and regularly lose - as a child.
Having been enjoyably candid about his goals for the summer - smashing a 27-year-old standard and winning Games gold - Kerr concedes there is relief about following word with deed. But the expectation has also been infused with enjoyment, too.
"This whole experience has been really fun for me, too, actually," he said. "I used to come to Glasgow quite a lot to hang out with friends I made through athletics and, it's funny, we're staying pretty close to where we'd meet up and walk around town.
"The city is buzzing with the Games and it's just nice to be a part of that and really feed off the city."
'Flower of Scotland is just different' - emotional Kerr
It all culminated for Kerr with listening to Flower of Scotland playing while he stood, bottom lip twitching, on the podium. Several times he had to stop singing to compose himself and, when the music stopped, he had to wipe tears from his eyes.
Scotland matters to him in a way that those many natives who have lived outside the country will recognise. Albuquerque in New Mexico is his base now - something his accent and phraseology sometimes betray - but Edinburgh will always be home.
"It's everything to me," Kerr said of his nationality. "It's the way I present myself and the way I was built. I grew up in Edinburgh until I was 17 and I'm very proud to be Scottish. I'm back four times a year right now, which I feel pretty good about."
With that said, how does he feel about being considered a sporting standard bearer for his country? As a successor to the likes of Sir Chris Hoy and Sir Andy Murray?
"Um, yeah, that, that sounds, yeah, I mean, it's an honour to be, to be spoken in the same sentence as those two legends," said the loquacious Kerr, for once struggling for words as the notion takes hold.
"Sir Chris Hoy went to my school, actually, and spoke a few times during assemblies and that just closed the gap between me and him for when I was sitting there as a pupil. It made it seem possible.
"Hopefully I can do that too, but those two guys are absolute legends of the game and I've got a lot of work to do to keep up with them."
Keeping up, as Kerr has proved this summer, is not something he tends to struggle with.