Now Kerr targets toppling nemesis in Paris
Ingebrigtsen rivalry can set up Olympic classic
JOSH KERR had only just finished soaking up the Emirates Arena acclaim when talk turned to Glasgow’s missing man. ‘I’m not sure if he watches BBC Two,’ the Scot quipped when asked what he thought his absent Norwegian foe Jakob Ingebrigtsen would have made of his latest global gold medal.
The Scandinavian inquisition, though, continued as media from Ingebrigtsen’s homeland swarmed round Kerr hoping he would say something incendiary to fan the flames of their feud. In fact, Kerr’s post-race interrogation on Saturday night was perhaps more testing than the 15 laps he had just blitzed to win the 3,000 metres at the World Indoor Championships.
Kerr, though, kept his cool, just like he had on the track moments earlier, resisting the temptation to have a pop back at the man who claimed last month he could beat him ‘blindfolded’.
‘I’m just putting performances together for myself, not anyone else,’ said the 26-year-old (right), who has now achieved something Ingebrigtsen has not by winning a world indoor title.
‘We are having a bit of fun back and forth. Hopefully it keeps you guys interested but I am more looking forward to the head-toheads and not the comments.’
It is those comments, though, that have really ignited their rivalry and means that the Olympic 1500m final in Paris will be one of the hottest tickets in town.
The war of words dates back to last summer, when Ingebrigtsen, 23, dismissed Kerr as ‘just the next guy’ after he was beaten by the Brit at the World Championships in Budapest. Kerr hit back by saying the Olympic champion was surrounded by ‘yes men’ and had ‘major weaknesses’.
Then, after Kerr smashed Mo Farah’s world indoor two-mile record in New York last month, Ingebrigtsen claimed: ‘I would have beaten him in that race, blindfolded.’
It is no wonder, then, that Norwegian reporters were trying to get Kerr to bite, while their own man was nowhere to be seen as he continues his recovery from an achilles issue.
‘ I’m a blabbermouth,’ admitted
Kerr. ‘I have a bit of an ego and I enjoy talking a little bit of smack here and there. We train for hours and hours on our own and we want an outlet to explain ourselves.
‘But we are just having fun. I don’t have anything against him. We are just two people who are trying to go after an Olympic title.
‘That’s going to come across as a clash sometimes but there is no ill will.
‘We are going to go head-tohead many times this season I believe. I don’t think I am going to win them all but I will win the right one.’ That right one is at the Stade de France on August 6. Kerr won bronze to Ingebrigtsen’s gold at Tokyo 2020, but he will not settle for anything less than the top step of the Olympic podium in Paris. ‘I’m the mailman, I guess,’ he said when asked if he will deliver this summer. ‘I love these moments. There’s a funny feeling that I get every time I step on that track that anything’s possible and I trust my instinct and trust my fitness because it’s there every single time. I’m a sick boy with that. I can’t stop believing in myself.’
Another Brit now full of belief is Molly Caudery, who won the world indoor pole vault title just 34 minutes after Kerr’s triumph on Saturday night.
The 23-year-old was not at the last Olympics, when her Loughborough training partner Holly Bradshaw won a bronze.
But Caudery is suddenly one of Team GB’s best hopes for athletics gold in Paris — something that eluded them entirely in Tokyo — as part of the country’s new generation of track and field stars. ‘It sounds like a lot of pressure but I am starting to work out how to deal with it,’ said the Cornish woman, whose personal best jump of 4.86m last month is the best in the world this year.
‘I do think there is a transition period going on. This Olympics could be some people’s last and there’s so many youngsters that were in my junior age group coming through.
‘My plan was always for 2028 and just to build until then. Then suddenly it has just snowballed into something that has happened really quickly.
‘Olympic gold is such a dream but I just need to stay healthy and get to the Olympics on that start line, then get through qualification and see what happens.’