Josh Kerr challenges rivals to ‘come and get it’ ahead of World title defence

Defending world 1500m champion Josh Kerr is delighted to be flying under the radar in favour of athletics’ newest distractions.

The 27-year-old Edinburgh athlete’s bid for back-to-back global golds begins with Sunday morning’s heats, where an unusually wide field of bona fide contenders will make Kerr’s event one of the most intriguing of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

Dutchman Niels Laros, 20, is the man with the most momentum and attracting the most attention.

“I know people have (slightly forgotten about me), which is amazing,” said Kerr. “I can sit here and say anything, and I’m sure it will come out the way it comes out, but look.

“These guys have run well all season, and that’s fantastic. I beat (Olympic champion) Cole (Hocker) in every race that I’ve raced him over 1500 this year, and I don’t believe I’ve ever lost to Laros.

“So if you look how the history has worked, I think I make a big jump at this time of the season.

“If you don’t think I’m in the conversation to continue to hold my world title, I do think it’s one of those things where people get excited about the new shiny toy but look, it’s my title.

“If they want it, they can come and get it, but I’m not looking to be giving it up any time soon.”

Kerr’s long-standing arch-rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen has not competed outdoors at all this season and faces a race against time to determine if he will be fully recovered from an Achilles injury by Sunday.

On Thursday, the Norwegian reigning 5,000m world and Olympic champion wrote on Instagram: “Fear not. Pre camp in Kyoto is going well. See you soon.”

A record 14 men have clocked times under 3:30:00 this year, including French world leader Azeddine Habz, but the third-fastest man at 1500 metres this year, Great Britain’s George Mills, has chosen to focus on the 5,000m.

There have also been six different Diamond League winners over 1500 metres or a mile this year including Laros, who won the Bowerman Mile at the 2025 Prefontaine Classic and recorded 1500m victories in Brussels and the Zurich finals.

But Kerr is confident he remains the man to beat, insisting he is “in a better place (than 2023), more excited, and I’ve already got one of those gold medals sitting in my safe”.

He added: “It’s not that the race is going to be easier, or that the competition is worse. I’m saying that I know how to do it. I’m fully, 100 per cent confident that I have exactly what I need to go out and win.”

Hocker upset both Kerr and Ingebrigtsen to win Olympic gold in Paris and when Kerr collected bronze at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games it was – due to Covid-19 – in front of an empty stadium. These World Championships, the stands at the same venue will be full of supporters.

“I think my biggest mistake in Paris would have been that I took in too much,” added Kerr. “The way that crowds and big moments work is they add probably about five per cent on to what you’re supposed to be doing.

“The first 800 I probably pushed a little bit too hard and burned a match where I didn’t need to.

“So I think just bringing that into this championships, knowing that it’s hopefully going to be a very loud crowd, a very excitable crowd, and using that to my advantage, not getting drawn into that too much too early, and using it when I need to.”