Britain's Kerr smashes long-standing world mile record

LONDON, July 18 : Josh Kerr shattered the 27-year-old world mile record at London Stadium on Saturday as he made his "Project 222" a reality, shaving almost three seconds off his own personal best in the process.

The 28-year-old Briton, roared on by a capacity 60,000 crowd at the London Diamond League meeting, ran a time of three minutes 42.66 seconds to break Hicham El Guerrouj's long-standing mark by 0.47 seconds.

As part of Project 222 Kerr had targeted a sub-223-second race, and with Saturday's run he became the seventh Briton to hold the mile record and first since Steve Cram in 1985.

El Guerrouj set his world record in 1999 when Kerr was only a year old.

The 2023 world 1,500m champion said in March he would target the Moroccan's record, building 222-second ice-bath recoveries into his training.

“Going after records like that is not really anything about fitness, it's about wrapping your mind around that time. That's why this was called Project 222,” said Kerr, who was presented with a cheque for $50,000 for breaking the record.

“I feel very lucky to push this forward and bring it back to the UK because I feel like that's where the mile belongs. Hopefully it can stay for a while.

“I knew I had 3:42 in me. If I'm going to leave my mark on this sport as a British athlete..., I have to be able to do those performances. And those performances take every single part of you and every single part of your team. This feels incredible.”

Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson won her first outdoor race of the season, taking the women’s 800m in 1:56.21.

“The only reason I came here today was because I wanted to win for the home crowd. I’m happy to get that out of the way,” said Hodgkinson.

SURPRISE WIN

America’s Brandon Miller produced a surprise