The BBC headline writes it as "27-year mile world record", which works out at about one quarter inch per hour.
British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
51–60 of 72 posts
Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#52Watch him do it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi2f4ONEDg&t=180 What an incredible performance. I've seen a sub-4 mile in person. These guys are absolutely flying. All of them. And he beats the pants off that field. Splits (400m): 400m: 55.3 800m: 1:51.1 (56.8 second lap) 1200m: 2:46.5 (55.4 second lap) 1600m: 3:41.4 (54.9 third lap) Mile: 3:42.66 Splits (100m): 100m: 13.8 200m: 27.5 (13.7) 300m: 41.0 (13.5)…
from https://www.letsrun.com/news/2026/07/chasing-342-inside-josh...
In terms of actual personal bests, Kerr’s fastest mile is the 3:45.34 he ran to win at Prefontaine in 2024. But his 1500 personal best of 3:27.79, which he ran in the Olympic final two months later, is the superior performance.
Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, they have that as well. You can see it in the photo here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/jul/18/josh-kerr-make...
Aha, thanks! Do you have any insight into what algorithm it uses? Like a ghost runner of the record pace or something?
from https://www.letsrun.com/news/2026/07/chasing-342-inside-josh...
[Josh Kerr's coach, Danny] Mackey was set to have a meeting with representatives from Wavelight on Tuesday to discuss the pace. He said they have yet to lock in specific splits, but Kerr told LetsRun.com in April that “an even split or a slightly negative split, I think, is the way to do it.”
3:43.13 mile pace is 55.45 per 400, which would mean 1:50.90 at 800 if they were to go for even splits.
Mackey says he hopes the pace is pretty even and “hopefully he’s got something left in the end.”
Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#54He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?
The shoes definitely help, but there are all sorts of other innovations that get far less press. More is known about optimal fuelling, hydration and sleep. Improve those and you improve your daily training. Better quality training compounds and allows you to reach closer to your talent ceiling. Kerr also had a system set up so his bedroom had less oxygen than the rest of his house (to mimic sleeping at altitude). He…
from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2026/06/23/josh-kerr-m... [turn off javascript to read entire article]
Dr Kyle works out the precise dietary requirements to support my training while my performance chef Jameel Austin does the shopping and makes the meals to ensure I implement that. Everything I put into my body is cooked by Jameel. He also works in a restaurant as a pastry chef – that’s not a food on my menu – but he comes to our house every Monday and Thursday to prepare the meals.
We also do an eight-day coffee fast before races. A coffee about three hours before the race should then have more impact. Regular blood-work informs whether any supplements are recommended by Dr Kyle. Supplements that I might have at different times of the year include vitamin D, omega-3 or beta-alanine.
Like most runners now in almost every distance and endurance sport, I will also take sodium bicarbonate before a race, but I never bother in training. Sodium bicarbonate is essentially baking soda and has long been known to buffer hydrogen ions and thus delay muscle fatigue. Its usage, however, has increased over recent years after it was produced in a gel that helps to bypass the gut and thus reduce the risk of gastro issues.Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#55Watch him do it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi2f4ONEDg&t=180 What an incredible performance. I've seen a sub-4 mile in person. These guys are absolutely flying. All of them. And he beats the pants off that field. Splits (400m): 400m: 55.3 800m: 1:51.1 (56.8 second lap) 1200m: 2:46.5 (55.4 second lap) 1600m: 3:41.4 (54.9 third lap) Mile: 3:42.66 Splits (100m): 100m: 13.8 200m: 27.5 (13.7) 300m: 41.0 (13.5)…
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Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#56Watch him do it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi2f4ONEDg&t=180 What an incredible performance. I've seen a sub-4 mile in person. These guys are absolutely flying. All of them. And he beats the pants off that field. Splits (400m): 400m: 55.3 800m: 1:51.1 (56.8 second lap) 1200m: 2:46.5 (55.4 second lap) 1600m: 3:41.4 (54.9 third lap) Mile: 3:42.66 Splits (100m): 100m: 13.8 200m: 27.5 (13.7) 300m: 41.0 (13.5)…
Putting it in 100m times is great perspective. This is essentially a healthy amateur athlete running at nearly full tilt for 4 minutes straight.
Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed Surely raw human potential cannot have progressed very much at all in the (at most) two generations represented by the 27 years the record stood. Granted, the population is significantly higher, so it is more statistically likely that we've produced a genuinely faster human than existed 27 years ago. I think it's fairly well accepted that most of the recor…
There’s a psychological factor. Many people believed it wasn’t humanly possible to do a sub 4 minute mile before Bannister accomplished it. Once that was done the flood gates opened and many others broke it in the following months. This is the “central governor” theory in endurance sports. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_governor
Nah, common misconception.
Progress had been steady for decades, but was interrupted by WW2.
There was one other person who did it a sub 4 minute a month and a half after him, then 3 more people the next year.
It was more down to improvement in training (Bannister was doing interval training, which was a new idea at the time).
Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#58He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?
>Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed Surely raw human potential cannot have progressed very much at all in the (at most) two generations represented by the 27 years the record stood. Granted, the population is significantly higher, so it is more statistically likely that we've produced a genuinely faster human than existed 27 years ago. I think it's fairly well accepted that most of the recor…
I think OP meant "raw human performance" rather than "raw human potential".
IMO, better training counts as "raw performance". I think that's more interesting than somebody happening to be born with a genetic advantage.
Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#59Watch him do it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYi2f4ONEDg&t=180 What an incredible performance. I've seen a sub-4 mile in person. These guys are absolutely flying. All of them. And he beats the pants off that field. Splits (400m): 400m: 55.3 800m: 1:51.1 (56.8 second lap) 1200m: 2:46.5 (55.4 second lap) 1600m: 3:41.4 (54.9 third lap) Mile: 3:42.66 Splits (100m): 100m: 13.8 200m: 27.5 (13.7) 300m: 41.0 (13.5)…
There were two men running in front of him for a while (and both just stopped eventually and just dropped off) - was it to "pull" him in their slipstream?
Re: British runner Josh Kerr breaks world record for mile which stood for 27 years
#60He had a special singlet designed and undoubtedly carbon shoes. Makes you wonder how much raw human potential has progressed vs just having better equipment and track surfaces?
The mention of pacemakers made me wonder if you could have some light marker on the track to show the ideal pace you should be keeping as well. If you can find the human equivalent of the rabbit for greyhounds then maybe even more could be achieved.
these have made significant differences in some WRs recently. Cheptegei's 10000m in particular was set with rock steady even splits compared to the prior record.