Josh Kerr Smashes 27-Year Men's Mile World Record in London
LONDON — Great Britain's Josh Kerr smashed the men's mile world record with a time of three minutes 42.66 seconds at the London Diamond League on Saturday, according to BBC Sport. The 28-year-old bettered Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj's 27-year-old mark of 3:43.13, set in 1999, by nearly half a second before a sell-out crowd of 60,000 at London Stadium.
By Source Reporters Newsdesk
Sat, 18 July 2026 · 1 min read
LONDON — Great Britain's Josh Kerr smashed the men's mile world record with a time of three minutes 42.66 seconds at the London Diamond League on Saturday, according to BBC Sport. The 28-year-old bettered Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj's 27-year-old mark of 3:43.13, set in 1999, by nearly half a second before a sell-out crowd of 60,000 at London Stadium.
Kerr became the seventh British athlete to hold the mile world record and the first since Steve Cram in 1985, BBC Sport reported. The five-time global medallist and Olympic silver medallist had publicly targeted the record in March under his "Project 222" plan, referencing the 222 seconds that separated him from history.
In the same meet at London Stadium, Britain's Keely Hodgkinson won the women's 800m, BBC Sport reported.
The run resets one of athletics' most storied benchmarks on home soil for the first time in four decades, a milestone for British track and field with global reverberations ahead of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games next month.
**Sources**
- https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/articles/cx2jl1wge2po
- https://worldathletics.org/records
- https://sourcereporters.com/sport/athletics/
- https://sourcereporters.com/sport/diamond-league/
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