The Times. Josh Kerr: Ingebrigtsen is polarising guy but so am I — I get fanmail from Norway

It
comes as something of a surprise to hear Josh Kerr say that he gets
fanmail from Norway. After all, arch-rival and barb-magnet Jakob
Ingebrigtsen is the Nordic provocateur who memorably said he could beat
the Scot blindfolded.
And
we are not talking emails and throwaway tweets here, but physical
letters. “I don’t know where they get my address from,” Britain’s
leading male track racer says. “Scary, really. They have to put a heck
of a lot of stamps on them.”
Most
postmortems into Paris stated Kerr and Ingebrigtsen were so obsessed
with each other in the 1,500m final that they left the door open for the
USA’s Cole Hocker to romp through on the inside. Kerr gained solace
from silver, to go with the previous year’s world title and his
Olympic bronze from 2021. Ingebrigtsen’s palpable devastation at seeing
Kerr go past meant he imploded to fourth, although he returned to win
the 5,000m.
Hocker enjoys his 1,500m victory after Kerr, in second, and Ingebrigtsen, fourth, appeared to be sidetracked by their own rivalry
THE TIMES
In
a wide-ranging interview, Kerr now explains why he is happy with Paris,
his belief that he is still the best and the impending decision to skip
his world indoor title defence.
But
first, those letters. Another big year for Kerr, 27, starts at next
month’s Millrose Games in New York but is geared towards defending his
world outdoor title in Tokyo. Enter Ingebrigtsen and the tit-for-tat
that has already started afresh this month. On a podcast Kerr suggested
that Ingebrigtsen, the 2021 Olympic 1,500m champion, would be a “deer on
ice” if forced to run the 800m in Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track league,
prompting the Norwegian to respond: “The day he contributes to the race
for world records I will take him seriously, but only then.”
“Listen,
he’s a polarising guy,” Kerr says on a Zoom call from the US. “Just
because you’re from a country where someone has had a lot of success
doesn’t mean you have to automatically connect with that person. We’re
both polarising. I’m sure he has a lot of British fans too.”
So
what of that “serious” issue of the 1,500m world record? Hicham El
Guerrouj’s landmark 3min 26sec is now 27 years old. Ingebrigtsen is
fourth on the all-time list with 3:26.73. Hocker, Kerr and Yared Nuguse
are seventh, eighth and ninth thanks to their times in the Olympic
final.
“Three
rounds, living on a cardboard bed [in the athletes’ village in Paris]
is not the perfect scenario for running a world record, so if any era is
going to be close then we’re getting there,” Kerr says. “Having four
guys run 3:27 is important, but if someone is going to run it in the
next year and a half then it’s not going to be me.”
That
cuts to Kerr’s honesty. He was raised at Edinburgh AC, the brother of
pro rugby player Jake, but has a transatlantic twang to his accent after
moving to the States as a teen, winning three coveted NCAA titles and
then providing proof of his ethics by swerving Alberto Salazar’s
controversial Nike Oregon Project. Now he has launched a YouTube series
to give more insight into what it really takes to get to global podiums.
“It
was hard to get into that shape physically and mentally,” he says as he
rewinds to Paris. “That cannot be scoffed at. Walking away
disappointed, with my tail between my legs, would have been extremely
disrespectful to everyone who helped me and to myself. I don’t think I
could have got back on the horse if I’d been upset with that. I was 0.2
seconds away from a perfect season — I won the world indoors in
Scotland, broke the two-mile world record, broke [Steve] Cram’s British
mile record, Mo Farah’s 1,500m record. I was close.”
Forget
the blindfold brickbat, but were the adversaries too blinkered? “When
someone has the narrative in their head already they say, ‘Oh yeah,
that’s what happened’. I was going to make a move but realised he
[Ingebrigtsen] was moving out in front, which would allow Cole through,
so I backed off a bit. He reclosed the door on Cole which made him slow
down.
Ingebrigtsen remains a polarising figure as an athlete and personality even in his home country of Norway
MICHAEL STEELE/GETTY IMAGES
“I
went again to give it everything and you naturally drift out when you
do that, especially if you sense danger on the outside. All credit to
Cole, though. He had another kick, which I still can’t quite believe. I
don’t think I could have done a stutter like that in the last 100. The
fittest man won on the day.”
Rewatch
the race and you see Kerr is right. He also sees the nuance in “best in
the world” labels. Does that moniker refer to recent races or the
person who won at the most recent global gold medal? “I still feel I’m
the best 1,500m runner in the world but I don’t have the championship
belt,” he says.
It
is also hard to give much credence to post-Olympic races. “I trained
for them, signed up for them, but there’s an element of having had this
big exam and then being told to go home and study. I shouldn’t make
excuses but that’s the truth,” he adds.
One
of the ironies of what Kerr concedes is “a huge rivalry” with
Ingebrigtsen is their jarring takes on racing each other. Ingebrigtsen
has stated Kerr “hardly ever shows up” and last year told The Times:
“In my mind not showing up is not an option unless you are half-dead.”
However, Kerr is in Grand Slam Track and so will have regular races
against Hocker, Nuguse, Marco Arop and a changing cast of four
“challengers”. The format means he will race over 1,500m and 800m.
Ingebrigtsen is not involved, but in fairness to him, the categories do
not cater to his 1,500m-5,000m specialisms.
“The
money is much better in this league but the competition is consistent
and it’s the best,” Kerr says. “If you want to show how good you are in
the sport that’s important. This was presented to me as the sport’s
first professional track league. In the first and second spiel there was
an event in the UK and that has now changed, but I think they’ll get
one in Europe next year.
Read more
Rivalry blinds Kerr and Ingebrigtsen as Hocker shocks the world
Jakob Ingebrigtsen: I’m still the best – I can get ten world records
“You
know, we have to take a level of responsibility to interest fans. It’s
not ‘woe is me, we don’t we get paid as much as Premier League
footballers’ — we have to show the product. It’s not like City and
Liverpool don’t play because they don’t fancy it.”
This
gets to the heart of the schism with Ingebrigtsen. Kerr thinks his
sport tends towards soporific niceness and fear of feather-ruffling.
“Our job is to run fast and also to entertain, and keeping your opinions
to yourself does not lend itself to that. We’re not trying to be
massively disrespectful and I would not say it to someone who is not
taking it well, but it’s my honest opinion of the guy.”
Kerr will this year marry Rodriguez, whose support for her husband-to-be has been a YouTube sensation
MARTIN RICKETT/PA WIRE
Both
brilliant, the duo’s fractiousness is old school, akin to Daley
Thompson chipping away at Jürgen Hingsen in the 1980s or the strife of
Seb Coe vs Steve Ovett.
The
success of Grand Slam Track remains to be seen, but it is already
changing some things. With more 800m races ahead, Kerr says his training
will be more speed-based and the opening date also means he is likely
to forego the defence of his world indoor title in March.
“Traditionally, going after world titles was what I was built for, but
this new league is bringing a new dynamic,” he says. “I don’t want to
risk the first Grand Slam Track with more money and eyeballs on the
line. Right now I’m not looking to run the world indoors.”
He
stayed in the US for Christmas, partly through a visa issue, but his
parents flew out from Edinburgh this week. This year he will get married
to Larimar Rodriguez, a doctor who became a social media sensation
after her enthusiastic encouragement of Kerr during his 2023 world title
run was caught on camera.
There
is much to look forward to before his last Olympic Games — “on the
track, anyway” — but even those whose job is to move forwards fast need
to look back. So what was his highlight of Paris? “Alex Yee,” he says of
the triathlete’s gold medal race.
“It was one of the coolest things because he was so down and out. Even
the camera angles seemed to help. You know, ‘this could be his last
effort’ and then he came through like a steam train.”
Hodgkinson, the SPOTY winner, is regarded by Kerr as the kind of athlete the sport needs
MARC ASPLAND FOR THE TIMES
Yee
is one of sport’s nice guys, the apparent antithesis of the
muscle-flexing alpha male, but Kerr knows his toughness. “I’ve been on
the team with him since 2015 and he’s always been brutal to work with.
He’s so nice there’s no damaging him, no way of taking the sting out of
him.”
Kerr is also glad to see Keely Hodgkinson
reaping the rewards of her 800m golden turn. When Kerr won the world
title he did not even make the BBC Sports Personality of the Year
shortlist, but there is no jealousy, just an appreciation of what she is
doing for his sport. “It’s not like she was an overnight success
either,” he says. “She’d been knocking on the door, knocking again, and
then she blew the thing off its hinges. That’s what the sport needs,
that icon, that consistent superstar.”
For
Britain’s middle-distance elite the Olympic follow-ups offer the chance
to build on gossamer misses and gilded reminisces. For Kerr more
red-letter days with Norwegian postmarks may be coming soon.

Biggest takeaway is he thinks that he is not racing world indoors due to GST.

Everything else though is mostly weird. I’ll let others comment as I don’t care enough to.

The guy just seems to want to start trouble all the time. I'm becoming less and less of a fan.

I get that Kerr has a lot of detractors here, but really, what was "weird" in that interview? Use quotes, because I read the whole thing and it was a pretty bog-standard athlete interview. If you asked me to pick out even one "weird" thing, I would struggle. He was honest about how he feels about post-champs races, gave props to Hocker, Hodgkinson, and Yee and said that he thinks the sport should be entertaining on and off the track. Tell me what I'm missing

Trying to bully Jakob like Paul McMullen thought he did successfully to Steve Holman.

Ain't gonna work in Jakob.

Kind of doubt it did on Holman

Two small things: He said he still sees him self as the best in the world (1500m) after a year he was ranked 6th by WA (I personally think he should have been ranked higher). And he said it was four 3.27 runners, despite knowing that Jakob was 3.26….

This isn't the first time Kerr talked about getting contacted by Norwegian fans. He mentioned it in his recent interview with Citius. Chris Chavez made a comment about Norwegians rooting against Kerr, and Kerr said, "You'd be surprised, Chris, I get a lot of messages from Norwegian fans."

One thing I hadn't seen before this new interview with Kerr is he confirmed what some of us have suspected, which is his trash-talk about Jakob is intentionally done to generate more interest in their races. I think the key quote is: "Our job is to run fast and also to entertain, and keeping your opinions to yourself does not lend itself to that."

I see Kerr as very similar to Noah Lyles in that they are trying to generate buzz for the sport, and they are willing to take on the villain role if it means getting more people to watch.

Both guys are cocky

But Jakob has way more credentials to back it up with/justify his cockiness with

Heia Jakob, jeg gleder meg til 2025-sesongen (innendørs OG utendørs)

Nah, you're reaching there. I'd expect all of Jakob, Kerr and Hocker to say that they're the best. Almost all top athletes think that way. Just look at the 100m guys - Fred Kerley genuinely thought he'd break the WR last year. A top elite athlete believing they're th best is not weird, it's mundane

Josh Kerr's Norwegian fanmail is definitely just Nordas sending weekly encouragement letters saying "you can beat my countryman".