World Athletics Indoor Championships 2024: Josh Kerr sets Team GB Olympic Games marker

Josh Kerr navigated the bedlam of a Saturday night in Glasgow with the practised insouciance of a man who knows he belongs. Among his own people, he knew the script at these World Indoor Championships.

So did his rivals lined up on the track beside him. They glanced furtively at Great Britain's outdoor world 1500m gold medallist as they waited twitchily for the 3,000m final to start. He was the man to beat. The top boy.

The 26-year-old blithely ignored them, just as he did a couple of peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters who were being awkwardly huckled from the finishing straight by two bemused stewards.

Shielded by his shades, Kerr allowed himself a final glance around an arena that he last raced in when "finishing about sixth in the Scottish districts".

• Kerr romps to world indoor gold

• 'I'll be ready to win gold in Paris'

Time has moved on, though. That wee boy is a big man. And that big man is arguably the best male middle-distance runner in the world.

The commanding way Kerr rampaged to his second world gold in nine months spoke loudly to that claim. "He pretty much had the gold medal in his pocket from 400m out," declared BBC commentator Steve Cram.

He wasn't wrong. The Edinburgh native sat in the pack for the opening 11 laps, administering the odd bump, elbow or push as the field jostled for position behind Selemon Barega and Getnet Wale. The slow pace suited him.

Then, with four to go, Kerr had decided enough was enough. Moving menacingly on to the shoulders of the Ethiopian duo at the front, he looked like he could surge past whenever he wanted but kept his composure until the bell.

Barega resisted initially, but Kerr roared around the outside and burned him in the back straight.

A slight smile seemed to play on his lips as he catapulted into the home straight before his jaw clenched and he stormed over the line in a time of seven minutes 42.98 seconds.

Kerr had become the first Scottish athlete to win a global indoor gold since Tom McKean and Yvonne Murray did so 31 years ago and his immediate reaction was to seek out a Saltire to swaddle himself in as the Glasgow crowd went wild.

Doing this mattered. But doing it here meant it mattered more. "Coming back home and doing myself proud is a great feeling, a full-circle moment," he told BBC Scotland.

"I think I burnt more energy celebrating than I did in the race, which was a bit embarrassing. I wanted to make sure I wasn't acting emotionally out there. I tried to keep a patient head and I really stepped on it with 400m to go."

The manner in which Kerr claimed victory was reminiscent of the way in which he bodied reigning Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen to take World Championship outdoor gold in Budapest in August.

In the months since, the Norwegian has had one or two things to say about Kerr who, sportingly, has offered one or two pointed observations of his own.

There's an enjoyable niggle there that will only build as this summer's Paris Olympic Games looms.

Ingebrigtsen has not been in Glasgow this week, but events will not have escaped his attention. They will have served as a further reminder that Kerr is capable of upgrading the bronze he won in Tokyo three years ago.

"It's a massive stepping stone towards bringing back more gold medals to Scotland, to Great Britain, to Team GB," Kerr said of this success.

"All you can to do is make yourself available when the chance of gold is there. That door opened today.

"After Budapest, I knew I had the ability to come home and do something really special. I wanted to turn up to these championships and show what's possible for a Scottish boy that grew up here, is born and bred here.

"I'm trying to inspire the next generations of runners to show that if you're from here, you can be a champion."

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