The GB Olympian plotting to upset running’s ‘ego monster’ at Paris 2024

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Norwegian poster boy of world middle distance running, believes himself to be without peer at 1,500 and 5,000 metres.

This suits entirely the disposition of the only man to have beaten him at 1500 in 2023, Britain’s world champion Josh Kerr. The combative Scot views major championship competition as an athletics arm of the UFC, and plans another octagonal uprising should the pair meet as expected in the Olympic final in Paris.

Ingebrigtsen took defeat in Budapest like the ego monster he is, claiming illness denied him more than Kerr, who was, he said, simply the next man in line, much as Britain’s Jake Wightman had been in 2022 when holding off God’s gift down the stretch. The alternative view, expressed by Kerr, is that Ingebrigtsen needs to be led along by pacemakers to crank out the victories with the regularity he does. This doesn’t happen at major championships where the qualifying rounds filter out the domestiques.

Kerr acknowledges Ingebrigtsen’s preternatural talent, after all he took bronze to the Norwegian’s gold in Tokyo. He is content to leave the astonishing records and the Diamond League victories to him whilst he grafts away in his US training bunker in order to peak in Paris.

“I have been racing at a high level since 2017,” he tells i. “Year after year we are learning more.

“I’m able to bottle those moments for myself, crossing the finishing line to become the best in the world. That is the moment we live for. But we move on.

“We need to run faster, get better and stronger. This is the most important year of my career. That is the focus right now, short-term goals, step by step.”

Kerr’s first engagement of 2024 is the prestigious Millrose indoor meet on 11 February in New York, where he is targeting Mo Farah’s two-mile world record, aiming to become the first human to dip under eight minutes at the distance.

“You can’t really plan for a race six months hence. We do indoors, then qualifying times, then the British Championships, training camps, get to the Olympics, go through the rounds then into the final. It’s a long year, but taken step by step it is manageable.”

Ingebrigtsen’s senior by three years, 26-year-old Kerr took the more conventional route via college athletics in the United States. Though his career has few of the starbursts that light up Ingebrigtsen’s, Kerr is the holder of a middle-distance flame that burned so brightly in Britain during the golden years of Steve Ovett, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram. It is inconceivable that any of them would have been left off the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist in the year they won world championship gold.

Maybe Ingebrigtsen was on the selection panel. As one of the 1,000-plus elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, Kerr still chose to attend the national broadcaster’s annual pageant. He did so ostensibly to support Katarina Johnson-Thompson, but also to introduce himself, and as an act of provocation ahead of the 2024 gathering when he turns up wearing Olympic gold.

“More people are taking notice now. I’m seeing that a lot. I’m busier with media.

“My schedule is busier than it has ever been outside of training. I enjoy it, telling my story, putting my brand out there. And hope that connects maybe with a younger audience.

“I’ve always been confident in my abilities but now there is more validation, coming into an amazing year in sport having beaten the best in the world. People want to follow those who have big chances of winning Olympic medals.”

The rivalry with Ingebrigtsen will be one of the hotter topics at the games, at least outside the coterie of BBC adjudicators. As you might expect from one who fits the blue-eyed, six-foot Love Island template, Kerr likes being Josh. He laughed when I remarked that not only was Ingebrigtsen beaten in Budapest, he wasn’t even the best-looking bloke in the race.

It is Kerr’s iron sense of his own worth that allows him to sit back unperturbed whilst Ingebrigtsen smiles for the cameras and hoovers the world’s attention.

“I have a lot of respect for how he has brought eyes to our event. His job is incredibly difficult, week-in, week-out to go after world records. Trying to run faster than anybody has ever run in the world is difficult to do.

“But they are the decisions he has made. He wants to be the best runner that’s ever lived. He’s well on his way.

“The race is Budapest was more about him losing than me winning. That’s okay. That’s not my journey.

“My goal is to be the most dominant runner at major championships. They are just two different storylines that collide. He has got the better of me in the majority of our head to heads, but I’m coming to the peak of my career.

“Yes he is younger than me but I think he has been training like a professional for ten years or so. Maybe I’m a bit behind in that respect but I’m coming into my best years now.”

Like Ovett and Coe, these two could never be dance partners.

“If we are next to each other having a conversation it’s normally pretty cordial, but when you are trying to be as dominating as he is, you are not going to make a ton of friends. But that’s not why we are in this business. We are here to run fast and win races, and not worry too much about perceptions.

“For me I’m always going to be myself. If people are okay with that great, if not it is up to them.

“I work hard to get to the position I am in. I know how much pressure I’m under to do my job properly. For me it’s about following up on dreams I have had for a long time.”

Slamming past Ingebrigtsen off the final bend with 200m to go in Budapest changed the landscape for Kerr and validated a process that began at 17 when he pitched up in the United States with his parents to sign his release forms at the University of New Mexico. Kerr spent part of his Christmas break in Paris, gaining a sense of how it might feel this summer. When he lines up in Paris he knows he can win, and so does Ingebrigtsen.

“I know how much that made my career. Being able to do it on the right day was so important for me. It was a lifelong dream. I’m focused on being there and at my best. If I’m at my best then I will be a danger to everyone else in that race.”

Did you visualise winning gold? “Yes. It was a close race, too, so I’d make sure you are watching.”

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