Josh Kerr said he’s not sick but had been injured early in 2025

Jakob last year ran a 3:45 mile as his debut after coming back from injury

Then here's Kerr struggling to run under 1:51 for 800 lol

So he never got the Noro virus? I'm confused. He did indicate in a video though that he had a hip injury.

I think he was sick before Millrose (and also still had the hip issues). The rumors about being sick this weekend apparently were just rumors.

in before the jakob glazers flood the comments and make this thread about a JI glaze fest

We took Jakob at his word in Budapest, we can do the same here for Josh Kerr.

That being said, it's not like he ran poorly last night. He ran 3.35.61 with a 52.3 last lap - that's not quite world title winning form but I think he'd take that in the first week of April, in fact it's somewhat impressive.

What it doesn't explain is the 1.50.7 today. That was giving up.

When you consider he has a 3 year, million dollar deal with GST (nearly $42k per start), maybe it puts that effort (or lack thereof) into perspective. He made 12.5k today which put him at nearly 55 for the meet. That's even more cash than a challenger would make coming in and getting second (50k + 2k appearance). Make of that what you will.

Jakob had a several month buildup to his 3:45.

And Kerr likely wasn’t really coming off a hip injury.

Is "hip injury" code for having sand in your vagina

My wife was banned for saying that Kerr was not sick at Millrose.

Never understood what this meant. Does glazing someone = blowing them? (Metaphorically)

He was sick immediately the night before Millrose. In one of his later YouTube videos ironically taken two weeks before Millrose, Danny Mackey says he was sick over the winter though it sounds like December timing at latest. Not sure where the recent illness rumor started.

Rumor is that the lime green suit he had on at the press conference ate up a good chunk of that. Apparently, it is vintage Liberace.

So did the Cybertruck. It's vintage Musk.

How did Jakob do at the Olympics in the 1500?

I think he is in poor fitness overall. Certainly not in good enough shape to go to the well in the 1500 and then come back in a race he struggles with 21 hours later. Maybe the last 200 he gave up a bit but he just is out of shape and wouldn’t have raced until June in his old MO if he wasn’t contractually obligated to.
I think you did predict this might happen to him as soon as he signed. He’s lost his agency over the season, and while I do think he is a good tactical 1500m runner pretty much always if this trickles into his training, he might just fall short of the past 2 seasons and end up more like 2022.

So then the question is, if you are Michael Johnson and this guy was a marquee signing - he was second after only SML and you are paying him that much cash to be the distance running "icon" of your league - are you stoked about that?

I think my basic prediction was that guys were happy to take a ton of cash without really understanding what they are getting into full picture. This is happening at a crucial time in the season when guys like really charging their batteries coming off winter grind. These meets are 6 days of commitment - arriving on Wednesdays and leaving Mondays. Now you have another 3 to do in the next 11 weeks or so. I'm not surprised at all.

I 100% agree and it’s why Kerr was such a strange signing. The guy who shrugs off rare bad performances (partially because he rarely races) with “I run great when it counts most” and competes sparingly is a tough match.

You’d actually want the opposite and it’s why Ngetich is keeping her category afloat. She isn’t worried about that stuff and just runs hard and the prize (not just appearance) money means a lot.
The format did make Kerr more interesting than in a DL style race. In that maybe he runs 3:31 high and is well off the others in an uninteresting way.

But the 800 part of things and the risk with committing to Kerr is he’s interesting when fit and the act wears thin if he’s out of shape and just coming off as disingenuous. Same deal with Kerley. I’d much rather have a guy who maybe doesn’t have the same clutch factor but is steady for this sort of thing like Simbine let’s say or Tim Cheruiyot let’s say in the 1500. Kerr’s a tough sell for the 800, SML has no such limitations and could even do 2 other groups. The injury risk is there but the indifferent performances are not.

I don't know if I buy the theory that guys like Josh Kerr are phoning it in and don't care because they are pocketing a big pay day. These guys are professional athletes, they should be motivated to perform and expected to perform BECAUSE they are being paid well. Plenty examples of this in track and field and other competitive sports.

In other sports, if you are paid well but don't perform...you get cut.

Ngetich was the best signing in Grand Slam Track. We didn't see the Americans in either race and with Cram on the call we didn't have to worry about needless references to them.