Olympic bronze medallist Josh Kerr delivered another performance of a lifetime to claim the World Championship title in the men’s 1500m, keeping the crown firmly in British hands as he repeated the feat of a teammate from a year ago in leaving pre-race favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen trailing in his wake.
Just over a year on from Jake Wightman’s sensational global gold ahead of Ingebrigtsen in Eugene, Kerr went for the Norwegian with 200m to go in an exhilarating world men’s 1500m final and had a far superior kick in the final few metres as he won in a season’s best time of 3:29.38 minutes, 0.27 seconds ahead of the favourite.
Kerr was joined in the men’s 1500m final by teammate Neil Gourley who placed ninth in 3:31.10 while there was drama elsewhere in the stadium on the fifth night as Molly Caudery soared to a huge personal best to place a brilliant fifth in the women’s pole vault final on the biggest occasion of her career. All the while Kerr was winning a sensational gold and Caudery was flying to fifth, Anna Purchase was quietly going about her business on her World Championship debut in Budapest to advance to the women’s hammer final from qualification Group B after a best throw of 71.31m.
There was no denying who the night belonged to on the banks of the Danube though as Kerr became the second British world champion in Budapest after Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s gold in the heptathlon while it pushes the team’s medal tally to four overall after five days - two gold, one silver and one bronze. Kerr said: “It has been a long time coming. It is quite an overwhelming experience, but I am so proud of myself.
“I am so proud of my team and my family - they got me here. I didn’t feel like I ran the best race either, so I just threw my whole 16 years of this sport at that last 200m and didn’t give up until the end. It was fast from early and I kind of got bumped back into sixth or seventh but I stayed calm and I just wanted to execute a race that I would be proud of and I knew that I was capable of a World Championship gold medal for the team so I am very proud to be able to add to that medal count today.”
Kerr and Gourley were placed in the middle of the bunch as the men’s 1500m final got underway with the latter on the inside. The British pair had to jostle around the bend before the bell went for two laps to go with Kerr starting to make his move as he moved wide.
He moved to second behind Ingebrigtsen with 600m and was right on the Norwegian’s shoulder as the last lap began. The two started to stretch away from the field down the back straight before Kerr decided it was time to push for the lead with 200m to go.
Kerr always looked confident even as Ingebrigtsen responded but try as the Norwegian might to prevent him from coming through - in a near repeat of the final from a year ago that saw Wightman triumph - the Brit powered through in the closing metres to take a sensational gold. He roared away in celebration as Ingebrigtsen looked completely stunned.
The new world champion’s time a season’s best of 3:29.38 - 0,26 quicker than he has gone all year - and he added: “There is a very big reminiscent of Wightman in there [over the last 200m]. I was battling with Jakob pretty hard - you could see by my face that I was throwing everything I could at this guy.
