First Ingebrigtsen-Kerr trash talk of 2025 is here

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

Isaac.Fredin wrote:

To the people that are getting mad at the banter... this trash talk is exactly what track and field needs. You don't see people getting mad at NBA players for talking crap. We can't complain about people not enjoying track when we keep it a bunch of people politely running in circles. There needs to be skin in the game.

No people don't get mad at NBA players for "talking crap" - they just get tired of it and switch off and don't watch anymore.

The "banter" would be good if it had some genuine foundation to it. But right now this seems like some social media startup vice president has been advising Josh Kerr on how he can manufacture drama with Jakob to create interest around himself.

Most people don't live like this - hence it's not relatable and having the opposite effect.

Jonathan Gault wrote:

We are only nine days into 2025 and the Kerr-Ingebrigtsen war of words has already resumed.

On an episode of the Citius Mag Podcast that was released on Thursday, Josh Kerr offered his thoughts on Jakob Ingebrigtsen not signing up as a Racer for Grand Slam Track:

"I think it's smart that he didn't sign up, to be honest. In any non-paced race, he hasn't won in the last couple of years. And so you're going to throw him in a bunch of non-paced races? It seems silly, to do that. It's gonna expose most of his tactical stuff. And if he was in the 800-1500 group, watching him run the 800 would be a lot like a deer on ice."

Tweet:x.com/phofmahoney/status/1877408793039...

Within hours, Ingebrigtsen had responded to TV2 in Norway:

"The day he contributes to world record racing, I'll take him seriously. But only then."

Link:www.tv2.no/sport/rivalen-hardt-ut-vill...

The amusing thing to me is that neither of them are giving the other any credit at all. Ingebrigtsen is certainly more vulnerable in non-paced races, but he was brilliant in winning the European champs last year without rabbits -- a meet that Kerr notably skipped.

Meanwhile Kerr's first race of 2024 was a world indoor record in the 2 mile that he announced he was targeting months ahead of time. Now it helped a lot that Kerr had Grant Fisher pushing the pace up front in that race, but Kerr said he was going for the WR and got it.

Jonathan Gault wrote:

We are only nine days into 2025 and the Kerr-Ingebrigtsen war of words has already resumed.

On an episode of the Citius Mag Podcast that was released on Thursday, Josh Kerr offered his thoughts on Jakob Ingebrigtsen not signing up as a Racer for Grand Slam Track:

"I think it's smart that he didn't sign up, to be honest. In any non-paced race, he hasn't won in the last couple of years. And so you're going to throw him in a bunch of non-paced races? It seems silly, to do that. It's gonna expose most of his tactical stuff. And if he was in the 800-1500 group, watching him run the 800 would be a lot like a deer on ice."

Tweet:x.com/phofmahoney/status/1877408793039...

Within hours, Ingebrigtsen had responded to TV2 in Norway:

"The day he contributes to world record racing, I'll take him seriously. But only then."

Link:www.tv2.no/sport/rivalen-hardt-ut-vill...

The amusing thing to me is that neither of them are giving the other any credit at all. Ingebrigtsen is certainly more vulnerable in non-paced races, but he was brilliant in winning the European champs last year without rabbits -- a meet that Kerr notably skipped.

Meanwhile Kerr's first race of 2024 was a world indoor record in the 2 mile that he announced he was targeting months ahead of time. Now it helped a lot that Kerr had Grant Fisher pushing the pace up front in that race, but Kerr said he was going for the WR and got it.

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

So if this was just Josh Kerr opening his yap out of thin air to take a shot at Jakob then I don't really know what to say.

I'll try and explain it this way - the last great "miler beef" was kind of the original one and of course that was Coe and Ovett. But the thing that made it so good was that neither of the guys really opened their yaps about each other and let the media try and spin their words. And the key thing was that the underlying force behind it all was a genuine difference between both of them in personality and the way they portrayed and held themselves.

This "beef" is just two pretty boys with perfectly coifed hair who drive expensive cars. It's so contrived and disingenuous it's laughable. To think that this was the first thing we heard from Kerr this year and it's focused on Jakobs "racing ability" - I'm starting to think maybe he's gay and secretly lusts after Jakob.

The worst part of it all is that Kerr has now decided on this "I'm a racers racer" schtick - he's all about the competition and head to heads - the "true essence" of the sport. Yeah, only when he got a fat check from Michael Johnson was he all of a sudden about that. Plenty of chances to race outside of the championships in the last 4 years Josh - I guess the "incentive" wasn't enough then.

Is he going out of his way to be disliked? Is this all a plan? The Scottish "Bond Villain"? A "Rick the Model Martel/CM Punk" WWE heel? Promoting his Cybertruck and his Gucci man-bags? You could say "well at least people are talking about him - you included, and that's a good thing" Is it? It's not making me want to watch GST which is the only time we'll see him outside of the World Champs, I'll tell you that much.

longjacksss wrote:

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

So if this was just Josh Kerr opening his yap out of thin air to take a shot at Jakob then I don't really know what to say.

I'll try and explain it this way - the last great "miler beef" was kind of the original one and of course that was Coe and Ovett. But the thing that made it so good was that neither of the guys really opened their yaps about each other and let the media try and spin their words. And the key thing was that the underlying force behind it all was a genuine difference between both of them in personality and the way they portrayed and held themselves.

This "beef" is just two pretty boys with perfectly coifed hair who drive expensive cars. It's so contrived and disingenuous it's laughable. To think that this was the first thing we heard from Kerr this year and it's focused on Jakobs "racing ability" - I'm starting to think maybe he's gay and secretly lusts after Jakob.

The worst part of it all is that Kerr has now decided on this "I'm a racers racer" schtick - he's all about the competition and head to heads - the "true essence" of the sport. Yeah, only when he got a fat check from Michael Johnson was he all of a sudden about that. Plenty of chances to race outside of the championships in the last 4 years Josh - I guess the "incentive" wasn't enough then.

Is he going out of his way to be disliked? Is this all a plan? The Scottish "Bond Villain"? A "Rick the Model Martel/CM Punk" WWE heel? Promoting his Cybertruck and his Gucci man-bags? You could say "well at least people are talking about him - you included, and that's a good thing" Is it? It's not making me want to watch GST which is the only time we'll see him outside of the World Champs, I'll tell you that much.

fantastic rant.

Coe Ovett was a dud, they hardly raced one another, except when "forced" at championships, and later on Ovett was in poor health, not a factor. shame

Walker Bayi, rivalry was brewing after the dual WR in 74, and both guys weren't right after 75 ish, and avoided one another, another dud.

At least Kerr and Jacob race one another, thanks to Jacob being fearless, while Kerr peaks for a couple of races per year, sits and kicks, taking the coward's path of least resistance to victory, except at Pre mile, he was racing Jacob coming off injury ....

don't get me wrong, if I was racing a superior guy, I would have to resort to peaking, sit and kick, and whatever tricks are in the bag, that said, I would not demand respect as the GOAT.

you can say, ya, i used every trick in the book, and won. and leave it at that.

meanwhile Jacob had no one to keep pace and went solo preferring the noble way, and to smash rivals, despite the couple of second handicap that comes with pacing all the way.

next season with hocker and goose maybe progressing from their real 329 (running jacob style) to maybe a real 327, then its really on, will those guys ante up and say take the pace from 1000m ?

or take the cowardly way out as does Kerr, abeit out of necessity.