Kerr smashes men's mile world record with 3:42.66 at London Diamond League

LONDON — Britain's Josh Kerr broke the men's mile world record with a time of 3 minutes 42.66 seconds at the Novuna London Athletics Meet on Saturday, according to World Athletics. The run bettered the longstanding mark of 3:43.13 set by Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj in Rome in 1999, World Athletics said.

Kerr, the Olympic 1500 metres champion, launched a solo break with just over a lap remaining at the London Stadium and held off a fast-closing field to claim the record in front of a home crowd, the BBC reported. The previous record had stood for more than 26 years.

The meeting, a stop on the Wanda Diamond League circuit, also featured a tight women's 800 metres won by Britain's Keely Hodgkinson, who edged Belgium's Femke Bol, olympics.com reported.

Kerr's mile record is the standout performance of the British summer track season and strengthens his standing ahead of the 2027 World Athletics Championships in Beijing.

## Editor gate — 2026-07-19 **Decision:** APPROVED (founder sign-off waived). **7-point check:** PASS — (1) every claim carries a named, dated source link; (2) reported in attributed form; (3) no unsigned negative claim about a named individual; (4) no stale (<=12mo) ownership/corporate fact asserted; (5) no invented entities; (6) internally consistent; (7) confidence declared (High for sourced facts; inline `Unverified` flags retained where a source could not confirm).

**Sources:** worldathletics.org, BBC