Kerr ‘very confident’ for 1500m defence in Tokyo

“I’m here to win” was the simple message from Josh Kerr as he prepared to defend his 1500m title at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

It’s neither bravado nor boasting, just the quiet conviction of an athlete who can look at his medal haul in the past four years and see World gold, Olympic silver and Olympic bronze glinting back at him.

“It feels exactly what it’s supposed to feel like,” said the 27-year-old Scot of his preparations. “It feels like I’ve earned it.

“It feels like I know what I’m doing and I’m just looking to execute a similar plan to 2023, where I go out and I take the race and win it pretty dominantly.

“You have to make sure you respect the competition’s abilities but I’m feeling very confident.”

A fierce competitor and good race strategist, Kerr is also a deep thinker and took time out to process the magnitude of his achievement in Budapest when he got the better of bitter rival Jacob Ingebrigtsen.

He explained: “When you win one of these and you finally get to that gold medal spot, everyone asks how it feels and has it sunk in?

“It took me a while to figure out. What it meant to me was; what standards do I need to raise in my life to allow this to be a trend and not a one-off? What do I need to do to be a world champion in the way that I train, the way I travel, the way I sleep, the way I eat, all of that stuff.

“I took four or five months analysing each part of my life and tried to see where I could make little gains, so that you go into a championship with no kind of stone left unturned.

Kerr will have two other Scottish global medallists for company in Japan.

Neil Gourley took world indoor silver in Nanjing earlier this year, while Jake Wightman paved the way to Kerr’s gold medal by beating Ingebrigtsen to the top of the podium the year before in Eugene.

Back-to-back world 1500m champions from Scotland is an achievement that still makes Kerr smile.

“It is underappreciated but that’s the world of sport, everyone moves on really quickly,” he said.

“I do think Scotland appreciates us. So our goal for the next few years is to continue to share the story, continue to share every part of what we do to get ready for these championships so that we can grow the next crop of athletes.

“For any athlete that comes through the club system in Scotland, we’ve shown you can reach these levels. There’s nothing stopping you from being the best in the world. We need to be that resource for them.

“It’s an awesome era to be in and I couldn’t be surrounded by better guys. I’m sure we’ll have some great battles and if I’m not the one winning, then I bloody hope that one of those two is.

“I think the Brits can have multiple medals. I mean, if you’re not going to tune in for the final on Wednesday, I don’t know what you’re doing.”

The race will also be the latest chapter in the Josh versus Jakob rammy, an intense rivalry that shows no sign of easing off.

“No, we don’t get along,” Kerr confirmed. “Then again, I’m not here to have lots of friends from different places. I’m here to bring medals back to the UK, back to Scotland.