Briton insists that winning gold at world championships will be the easiest thing he has done in the past six weeks
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s Josh Kerr prepares for a men’s 1500m with more intrigue and mystery than a Seicho Matsumoto novel, he wants to make one thing clear. He is, without any doubt in his mind, the man to beat at these world championships.
Kerr knows that everyone is bigging up Niels Laros, the staggeringly talented 20-year-old from the Netherlands who won the Diamond League final, and the 18-year-old Kenyan Phanuel Koech, who thumped him in London. Cole Hocker, the American who pipped him in an Olympic final for the ages, is one of many other dangers too. But as he prepares for Saturday’s heats, there is no mistaking Kerr’s supreme confidence.
“These guys have run well all season,” he bristles. “That’s fantastic. But I beat Cole every time that I’ve raced him over 1500m this year. I don’t believe I’ve ever lost to Laros. And if you look at how my history has worked, I make a big jump at this time of the season.
