Josh Kerr opens up on his intense rivalry with Jakob Ingebrigtsen (2024)

Josh Kerr resumes his bitter rivalry with Jakob Ingebrigtsen on Saturday night insisting he has gone up a level since they last went head to head.

The middle-distance stars have not raced each other since the world 1500metres final in Budapest nine months ago, when Britain’s Kerr stunned the Olympic champion to win his first global gold.

That race sparked a war of words between the pair which lasted all winter, with Kerr claiming Ingebrigtsen has ‘major weaknesses’ and the Norwegian saying he could beat the Scot ‘blindfolded’.

Now, though, Kerr, is ready to do his talking on the track at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, where he will face Ingebrigtsen as well as Britain’s 2022 world champion Jake Wightman in the prestigious Bowerman Mile, two months out from the Paris Olympics.

‘I've had some fun over the winter period and maybe been a bit loose with some of the things I said,’ admitted Kerr ahead of the Diamond League showdown. ‘That might be an understatement.

‘But I'm here to do a job now and not talk. I'm here to be the best in the world.

‘I'm excited to go against some of the best guys in the world. Why not go up against the guys I'll be racing in Paris early on?

‘It shows what kind of athlete you are. Some people are afraid to compete against certain athletes at certain points in the season. But it’s important for people to race – that’s what allows these back and forths.

‘Jakob has had the best of me a lot in my career, but I'm finally getting to a point where I feel confident in what I'm doing, the process that I have, the consistency that I have. So I'm expecting some better results in the future.

‘Have I gone up a level since Budapest? I believe so. I haven't missed days and that's what makes me really good. It's one of my superpowers.

‘If I keep focusing on that and keep drilling through that, then we're going to continue to find really nice results.’

Kerr, 26, showed he was in great shape earlier this year, when he broke Mo Farah’s world two-mile indoor record in February. He then won the 3,000m at March’s World Indoor Championships in front of a home crowd in Glasgow.

The Bowerman Mile will be his second outdoor race of the year after an 800m run on the same Eugene track last month, while it will be Ingebrigtsen’s first race since last September as he returns from an Achilles injury.

‘I don't want to be defined as Ingebrigtsen’s rival,’ said Kerr, who won a bronze behind Ingebrigtsen at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. ‘We're not going to fight each other - we're just two individuals trying to win the Olympics.’

Another individual trying to win the Olympics is Wightman, who was unable to defend his world title last year because of foot, shin and hamstring injuries.

After a 13-month absence, the 29-year-old was back racing indoors in February and will now make his outdoors return on the same track where he beat Ingebrigtsen to win world gold in 2022.

‘He's an awesome person, I love spending time with Jake, and I think he is going to be massively involved,’ said Kerr. ‘I don't think it's going to be a one versus one situation in Paris. I don't think it's like that at all.

‘But I'm going to be analysing and overanalysing every single athlete and I'll figure out the best way to win.

‘I'm not someone that just wants to be in the top five now or get a medal. I want to win these things.

‘I don't shy away from having big goals. That's how good I think I am. I know how difficult that's going to be - but I believe it's possible.’

Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic and world silver medallist, will run her first outdoors 800m of the summer in Eugene and will be up against Kenyan Mary Moraa, who beat her in Budapest last summer.

Olympics