Sawt Falasteen - Kerr thriving on 'great' rivalry with Ingebrigtsen

Kerr and Ingebrigtsen have traded barbs since the Scot swept past the Norwegian to snatch world gold in Budapest last year.

It was a remarkable repeat of team-mate Jake Wightman's victory over Ingebrigtsen at the 2022 Eugene worlds, where Kerr claimed bronze.

Kerr, 26, has gone on to claim the world indoor 3000m title in March in Glasgow, shortly after setting a new indoor 2 mile world record.

"I’m the mailman, I guess!" Kerr said of his ability to deliver.

Ingebrigtsen, however, claimed that he could have beaten Kerr in the 2 mile race "blindfolded".

"But it's good that people run better than they have done before," said Ingebrigtsen, who wrapped up a third 1500/5,000m golden double at the European championships in Rome.

Kerr for his part has said he thinks that Ingebrigtsen has some "major weakness" and flaws in the "manners realm", all the while praising his rival as "very dedicated and amazing at our sport".

"He also wants to be the best in the world and so do I, and that's going to make us clash 10 times out of 10. I'll always have respect for his performances."

Jonathan Edwards, the reigning world record triple jump holder, told AFP that fans craved the kind of competition that could throw up the odd prickly exchange.

"That thing between Josh Kerr and Ingebrigtsen is great, it's really good. You need those rivalries," Edwards said.

"The essence of athletics is faster, further, higher. There is something in the pursuit of excellence for excellence’s sake and that records should still be held up as the gold standard because I think that's the essence for track and field.

"But rivalries are important and I think they are the root of track and field."

- Never want a boring 1500m -

Kerr called the rivalry "great", saying everyone was "trying to go after that title".

"You never want to be involved in an era where it's boring in the 1500m, where you know someone is going to win it.

"We're having a bit of fun back and forth, aren't we?"

Kerr and Ingebrigtsen's ding-dong mirrors the rivalries between now-World Athletics president Sebastian Coe and and British teammate Steve Ovett, or Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie and Kenyan Paul Tergat.

"There's a bunch of athletes who are very good," Edwards told AFP of British middle-distance runners, with Keely Hodgkinson, Jemma Reekie and Laura Muir flying the flag for the women's team.

"It’s phenomenal. We thought those days (for Britain) were over but here we are almost as strong as ever.”

While the athletics programme in Paris kicks off on August 1, Kerr the planner revealed that he had visited the French capital over Christmas.

"I wanted to go over there and see what the track was like for the Olympics," he said. "I wanted to see the stadium at Stade de France and just familiarise myself with the surroundings as much as I could."

Kerr said the visit was the "forward planning started".

"I am a planner by nature. I like to know where I am going to be; what the stadium and the track is like; where I am going to race.

"It is nice to know that when you are creating scenarios in your head – while training weeks and months earlier. It gives you the right context for things. That is why I went."

Notwithstanding the stray elbows and tactics involved in safely negotiating heats and semi-finals, Kerr's showdown with Ingebrigtsen -- and potentially Wightman -- on day six of the Olympic athletics calendar promises to be one of the must-watch events on the Stade de France track.

"It's going to be a fantastic season of 1500m running and I don't think I'm going to win them all, but I'm going to win the right one," Kerr said. "It's my goal. That's what I'm focusing on."

Q.Najjar--SF-PST