British mile record holder and newly crowned world indoor 3000m champion Josh Kerr will compete in the historic Emsley Carr Mile - a prestigious, annual invitational event held in the UK - at the Novuna London Athletics Meet on Saturday 18 July.
Kerr, the 2023 world 1500m champion and double Olympic 1500m medallist, recorded his current mile best of 3:45.34 at the Prefontaine Classic (May 2024) and is ranked sixth on the world all-time list. “The Emsley Carr Mile has an incredible history and to have the opportunity to compete in that event in London is special,” said the 28-year-old who is planning to do some build-up races in the US as part of his preparation.
“I have some big goals this summer - it’s no secret that I want to compete for Scotland in the mile at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow too - and this fits my schedule perfectly. It’s a Diamond League race so I know it’ll be a strong field, but I’m not concerned about who will or won’t be there. I can only control my own performance, so I want to go out there and run fast. I want to make it memorable.”
In addition to the mile, Kerr is the British 1500m record holder (3:27.79) and holds the world best time for two miles indoors (8:00.67). The Emsley Carr Mile will return to the Novuna London Athletics Meet for only the third time in the last decade. The event was inaugurated in 1953 by Sir William Carr in memory of his father Sir Emsley Carr, a former editor of the News of the World.
The fastest time recorded for the Emsley Carr Mile - and the fastest mile ever recorded on British soil - is 3:45.96 by Morocco’s three-time winner Hicham El Guerrouj at Crystal Palace, London in 2000. The most recent winner was Henry McLuckie (GBR) at the University of Stirling in 2025 (3:53.99). The Novuna London Athletics Meet - the world’s biggest one-day athletics event - is the eleventh meeting of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League.
The series comprises 15 of the most prestigious events in global track and field across four different continents and begins in Doha on 8 May. It concludes with a single final across two days in Brussels (4-5 September). The Wanda Diamond League is the elite one-day meeting series in athletics. It comprises 15 of the most prestigious events in global track and field, delivering world-class competitions for fans and athletes in all four corners of the world.
The series provides a unique opportunity for athletes across the full diversity of track and field to compete regularly at the highest level throughout the outdoor season. In 32 different disciplines, athletes compete for points at the 14 series meetings in a bid to qualify for the two-day Wanda Diamond League Final. With events in 13 different countries across four different continents, the Diamond League is one of the most truly global series in world sport.
In 2025, it welcomed 400,000 spectators to some of the planet's most iconic arenas and was broadcast on television in 170 different countries. It also reached an online fanbase of five million social media followers worldwide, notching up more than one billion impressions and more than 900 million video views across all platforms. The 2026 Diamond League season will begin in Doha on May 8 and end at the two-day series final in Brussels on September 4-5.