LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) - Josh Kerr shattered the 27-year-old world mile record at London Stadium on Saturday as he made his "Project 222" a reality, shaving almost three seconds off his own personal best in the process.
The 28-year-old Briton, roared on by a capacity 60,000 crowd at the London Diamond League meeting, ran a time of three minutes 42.66 seconds to break Hicham El Guerrouj's long-standing mark by 0.47 seconds.
As part of Project 222 Kerr had targeted a sub-223-second race, and with Saturday's run he became the seventh Briton to hold the mile record and first since Steve Cram in 1985.
El Guerrouj set his world record in 1999 when Kerr was only a year old.
The 2023 world 1,500m champion said in March he would target the Moroccan's record, building 222-second ice-bath recoveries into his training.
“Going after records like that is not really anything about fitness, it's about wrapping your mind around that time. That's why this was called Project 222,” said Kerr, who was presented with a cheque for $50,000 for breaking the record.
“I feel very lucky to push this forward and bring it back to the UK because I feel like that's where the mile belongs. Hopefully it can stay for a while.
“I knew I had 3:42 in me. If I'm going to leave my mark on this sport as a British athlete..., I have to be able to do those performances. And those performances take every single part of you and every single part of your team. This feels incredible.”
Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson won her first outdoor race of the season, taking the women’s 800m in 1:56.21.
“The only reason I came here today was because I wanted to win for the home crowd. I’m happy to get that out of the way,” said Hodgkinson.
SURPRISE WIN
America’s Brandon Miller produced a surprise win in the men’s 800m in a personal best of 1:42.19, with Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi back in fourth.
The Kenyan had been targeting David Rudisha’s 800m world record set in the same stadium at the 2012 Olympics after setting a new 1,000m mark in Monaco a week ago, but he faded badly and was well beaten by the 24-year-old Miller.
Armand Duplantis was forced to withdraw from the men’s pole vault competition at the London Diamond League meeting on Saturday.
Duplantis, the double Olympic champion, suffered a first-time failure at 5.85m but, after clearing 5.95m, had strapping applied to his left thigh. He then chose to pull out with the European Championships on the horizon next month.
America’s Sam Kendricks took first place in his absence.
Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred capitalised on a great start to win the women’s 200m in 21.66, edging out American Gabby Thomas — who denied her a sprint double at the Paris Olympics — by 0.15 seconds.
Kanyinsola Ajayi beat world champion Oblique Seville of Jamaica into second in the men’s 100m, equalling his own Nigerian national record of 9.84 seconds.
World record holder Karsten Warholm ran the fastest 400m hurdles this year — 46.61 — to dominate the field in the absence of Alison dos Santos.
American Rai Benjamin, a specialist 400m hurdler, won the men’s 400m flat in a personal best of 44.05 with Ja’kobe Tharp, 20, who set a world record last month, taking the 110m hurdles in 12.89.
Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers set a new world lead of 2.01m to shade Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the women’s high jump.
There was a shock in the women’s discus, with America’s Cierra Jackson improving her personal best by almost four metres with her final throw to set a Diamond League record of 71.72m and finished ahead of double Olympic champion Valarie Sion.
(Reporting by Neil Squires; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Pritha Sarkar)
