My family is huge for me – they come here to visit me and I want to go back and visit them but everything that made my running career has happened in the US. I’ve got a girlfriend and house over here. I went to university (New Mexico) out here for four years. He explains: “I’ve built a life out here. He is all muscle and sinew and, despite his size, feels his stamina is better than his raw speed.ĭespite his Scottish roots, though, he has lived in the United States for several years. Once he gets moving on the track, though, his powerful long stride eats up the track. His brother Jake has played rugby union for Scotland and Josh also looks like he could have been a rugby player with a build that looks from a glance to be slightly too burly for middle-distance running. Kerr is from Edinburgh and he comes from a sporting family. “My parents were huge in that process and made sure that I didn’t overtrain, enjoyed what I was doing and just had fun on race day but also the eyes were always on the bigger picture and the older athletes.” If the goal is to be in the sport for a long time then you need to train smart and surround yourself with the right people.
You don’t have to throw your whole career away by over-training at that age. “No one really remembers who the under-13 Scottish or British record-holder is at 1500m, so it doesn’t matter that much. It is difficult if you don’t have the right guidance because you become greedy. We looked at the rankings list and realised none had made that jump from being really good young athletes to the senior level.
“My parents were massive in this process. So how does Kerr explain his longevity? “This was a big thing when I was 12 actually,” he explains. In fact, many of the young athletes on the list vanished before they hit the end of their teenage years.
When you study the UK all-time under-13 1500m rankings, Kerr is the only one to reach the Olympics. Here is an interesting statistic about Kerr. If I’m not the best of the best then what’s the point doing it.” Talent from an early age I dreamed about being the Olympic gold medallist and that’s who I am and that’s how I work. I never dreamed about being an Olympic finalist. “So I never dreamed about just going to the Olympic Games. “For every kid in any sport whether it’s football or rugby or whatever you don’t dream of being in the club championships and winning that,” he explains with his deep Sean Connery-esque accent. When Kerr gets talking it is stirring stuff. Then on Monday (July 26) he flies to Japan for the Games.Īfter getting stuck in traffic he is 10 minutes late for the interview and I nearly abandon the call.
He has just come down from an altitude camp at Albuquerque and is poised to run an 800m time trial with a deliberately slow first lap before picking it up in the latter stages (after our interview he clocked 55.8 and 50.5 for 1:46.3 followed by a 300m and 200m). Kerr is speaking to AW via video from Los Angeles. But post-August 7, I can’t imagine I’ll be racing.” “I’m coming into some phenomenal shape and coming into the best shape I can to go out and try to add to the medal tally for Team GB. “I don’t care if you go and run the trials and don’t make the team and then two weeks later you run 3:28. Yet he relishes the challenge and adds: “The major championships is where I live.
Then there is US champion Cole Hocker, fast-finishing Polish runner Marcin Lewandowski, in-form Australian duo Stewart McSweyn and Oliver Hoare, plus Kerr’s team-mate Jake Wightman of course. Olympic champion Matt Centrowitz of the United States is rounding into form to defend his title. Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway has been in terrific form this year. World champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya is expected to set a furious pace from the front. There will be no soft medals in the men’s 1500m at the Games either. Kerr exudes confidence and does not mince his words. People keep asking me what I want to do afterwards and if I want to run fast and I’m like no, I want to throw every single thing that I’ve got at this championships, see what comes out of it and learn from it.” This has been a build up that started when I was about nine years old for this specific situation and this race. My year will probably end on that day due to the fact that I’m throwing my whole life at this race.