Between sips of coffee, Josh Kerr contemplates achieving greatness.“If you want to be remembered as the best miler ever, you have to go after these records,” he says over a video call.Born and bred in Edinburgh, Scotland, his accent today is tinged with American English, which stems from having moved in his teens to the United States, where he won three NCAA titles and broke the U.S. collegiate 1,500m record while attending the University of New Mexico.Albuquerque in that state is his home now, though this summer the focus is on being back in the United Kingdom to pursue history.On Saturday, at the Diamond League meet in London, the 2024 Olympic 1,500-meter silver medallist is targeting a takedown of Hicham El Guerrouj’s men’s mile world-record time of 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds, which the Moroccan set in 1999.The Scotsman is as defiant as he is unapologetic when it comes to being ambitious.Speak to Danny Mackey, who has coached Kerr since he turned professional in 2018, and he says the mindset shift is the Briton’s biggest development.At age 28, he talks about how he wants to run: with complete conviction. “I’m not scared to lose. I don’t really care,” Kerr says. “I’m scared to not do myself justice, and I’m in full control of that. So there’s no reason to be quiet about things.”In late March, just days after he beat America’s reigning Olympic 1,500m champion Hocker into second place over 3,000m to win his second world indoor title, Kerr went public with Project 222, a name he devised based on the number of seconds he wants to run for the mile (it equates to 3:42 flat) at the London Stadium this weekend.But the big question: why put a pin on a date and be so loud about it? Doesn’t that raise the stakes? Isn’t he setting himself up for failure?“I’m sure it would be easier for some people to not come out and say it, to sneak their way around. It’s just not who I am, and it is not the way that I like to do the sport,” Kerr says.“I was hoping to rattle some cages,” he adds, grinning.Josh Kerr (right) won 3,000m gold at the World Indoor Championships in March. (Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP via Getty Images)He also sees the attempt as adding to the long British lineage in this event; from Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute-mile barrier in 1954 to the trio of Sebastian Coe (now World Athletics’ president), Steve Ovett and Steve Cram, all of whom held the world record at various stages in the 1980s.“For me, the only way you can affect this sport is by promoting it,” Kerr says. “I owe a lot to British and Scottish middle-distance running, and British athletics. This is my ode to that, and to the sport as well. I’m just saying, ‘This is my signature’, to go after something loudly, with my full team, my full heart, and whatever the result is going to be, we’ll stand up to that. But I’m telling you, it’s an all-out effort.”It was only in January that Kerr stepped onto a track again, having been blighted by a calf injury sustained at the World Championships in Tokyo four months earlier.He’d slowed near the line in his 1,500m semifinal and strained the calf in a tumble, having been nudged in the back by Timothy Cheruiyot as the Kenyan lunged for a top-four spot. Despite much physio work — performed by Kerr’s physiotherapist mother Jill — in the two days before the final, the leg did not hold up. The defence of his 2023 world title ended in agony. The calf gave out at the 900m mark, and he hobbled to the finish.“I was in great shape going into Japan, and I wasn’t able to show that,” he reflects. Mackey believed his conditioning was at world-record level, and, while Kerr won’t give a direct answer on whether he agrees, he trusts the judgement of his coach.“I pitched this (world-record attempt) to Brooks (his sponsor) back in November, when I hadn’t been back on the track yet,” he says. “It’s how I want to run my career and, mentally, obviously I knew I was injured and I knew I had some problems, but I’m surrounded by amazing people with the right nutrition and the right physio. It was going to be as quick a turnaround as it could be.”There have been markers to hit along the way this season.He set an 800m personal best in Los Angeles at the end of May, finally breaking the 1:45 barrier two months after his world indoor title. “Winning that world title was really important for this process,” Kerr says, smiling as he remembers his March success. “I had a real appreciation for the amount of work it takes to get to that point.”Kerr was the world 1,500m indoor champion in 2024, winning gold on a ‘home’ track in Glasgow, Scotland, six months after out-kicking Jakob Ingebrigtsen to earn his maiden outdoor crown over the same distance at the World Championships in Budapest. “When you win a world title and then you get another one, back to back, within five or six months… you feel like they’re going to come around very often,” he says, knowing first-hand how brutal and unforgiving middle-distance racing can be.In 2024, he had his sights set on Olympic gold. “There was no shying away from the fact that I wanted to win the Olympics. I didn’t quite do that,” Kerr says.That day in Paris, he ran 3:27 to set a British record and a huge personal best. He timed his kick perfectly to beat rival Ingebrigtsen, but Hocker finished even faster to deny him gold. “I had my best race ever,” Kerr says, “and when you’re racing other people you have those variables that you can’t control.”Cole Hocker celebrates winning Olympic gold in Paris with Kerr taking silver. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)Kerr will return to Glasgow after Saturday’s race in east London to compete over that same distance at the Commonwealth Games — the first time the mile has featured in that event since 1966 (it’s been the slightly shorter 1,500m for the intervening 14 editions). Then, if he and coach Mackey consider it feasible, he could end the season competing at the European Championships in Birmingham, England, in the middle of August.“It’s funny that I hear people saying, ‘It’s an off year’ (with no Olympics or World Championships), and that is the opposite of what I feel like this year is,” Kerr says. “Being in the prime time of my career and going after huge goals makes it feel like a really important year — and that puts the pressure on me a little bit.”But Kerr does have the opportunity to dedicate a whole season to one non-championship race and a world record almost as old as he is.Because of the rescheduling caused by the pandemic, the past five summers have presented opportunities for outdoor global-level medals — Kerr earned one of each hue during this period. Next year, the World Championships are in Beijing, China, before focus moves onto the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.“It’s not a record that you can fall upon,” Kerr says. He believes there are two ways to approach El Guerrouj’s long-standing milestone. Either at the end of an “amazing season”, providing there is enough mental energy left, “or you can turn the whole season into it”.To an extent, he knows what this will take.Kerr holds the quickest time indoors for two miles (8:00.67s, at the 2024 Millrose Games in New York City) and now, over half that distance, needs to improve his personal best and Scottish record by 2.22s if he is to dethrone El Guerrouj. “I’ve gone after records before,” Kerr says, and immediately caveats. “But this is another step above that.”Help comes from Brooks, his long-standing sponsor, which is producing a bespoke speed suit and spike for the race. London Diamond League meet organizers are also allowing him to both choose the pacemakers and control the field size.Kerr describes the target pace as “humbling”. Mackey has had him running 800m reps of it in training. “It is one of those paces that never feels all that comfortable. From a strength standpoint, we’re in a really good spot,” Kerr says. “But there’s only a certain level of comfort you can have with 55.5 (seconds per lap).”For someone as meticulous, obsessive and as much of a student of the game as Kerr, one wonders how many times he has watched the slightly grainy footage of El Guerrouj setting the record in Rome, Italy, in 1999.“A good amount, I’d say. I’m a good portion of the views,” he smirks. That video has 2.9 million hits on YouTube.Kerr is dreaming of achieving something even faster on Saturday.He wants to be remembered as the best miler ever.