Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Josh Kerr broke one of the longest standing records on the books at the Boston University Last Chance meeting on Sunday (27) where he gained ownership of the European indoor mile record.
The previous European record had stood to Ireland’s Eamonn Coghlan who ran 3:49.87 in 1983 when he became the first athlete in history to break the 3:50-barrier indoors but Kerr took just over one second off this mark with a 3:48.87 clocking.
Kerr also smashed the British indoor 1500m record en route, surpassing Peter Elliott’s time of 3:34.20 with a split of 3:32.86 - a time which has only been surpassed by Jakob Ingebrigtsen indoors from a continental standpoint.
And his mile time also elevates Kerr to third on the world all-time list behind Yomif Kejelcha’s 3:47.01 which was set on the same track in 2019 and Hicham El Guerrouj’s previous world record of 3:48.45.
Kerr’s record-breaking exploits were achieved thanks to a stupendous second half of the race. After a relatively conservative first 800 metres, Kerr ran successive lap times of 27.69, 27.62, 28.14 and 28.69 as he won by almost four seconds from Canada’s Cameron Proceviat in 3:52.54.
Crippa smashes the one hour-barrier and Italian half marathon record in Naples
Yemaneberhan Crippa’s half marathon debut last year ended in bitter disappointment as he was forced to pull out with breathing difficulties but the Italian was in scintillating form at the Naples City Half Marathon on Sunday.
Crippa broke the tape in a national record of 59:26 to become the first Italian athlete in history to break the one hour-barrier. His time was also the second fastest in history by a European after Julien Wanders’ European record of 59:13.
"This year I want to go under 13 minutes for 5000m and under 27 minutes for 10,000m. But above all I am looking for good placings at the Eugene World Championships in July and medals at the European Championships in Munich in August,” said Crippa who intends to run another half marathon at the end of the season.
After an injury and illness-plagued 2021 season which included pneumonia, Wanders continued his road to recovery with a sixth-place finish in 60:28, his fastest time in over 12 months.
In the women’s race, Ukrainian-born Italian Sofia Yaremchuk finished third in a lifetime best of 70:13. On crossing the finish line, Yaremchuk draped herself in the flag of the country of her birth.
“I knew I had trained well in Iten in the last month. Of course, the last few days have been really difficult for me and with many concerns. Naples, this race, this day, everything was spectacular,” she said.