It’s official. We now have a date set for among the finest rivalries in observe and discipline proper now. Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen will race for the primary time since final 12 months’s World Championships on the Prefontaine Basic in Eugene, Ore., on Could 25.
JUST ANNOUNCED: Three of the world’s greatest will face off in The Bowerman Mile at this 12 months’s Prefontaine Basic
💎 Ingebrigtsen 🇳🇴
💎 Kerr 🇬🇧
💎 Nuguse 🇺🇸Tickets begin at simply $25. Don’t miss out ⬇️
— The Prefontaine Basic (@nikepreclassic) March 12, 2024
After months of trash speak between the Olympic 1,500m champion, Ingebrigtsen, and the reigning world 1,500m champion, Kerr, the 2 will go head-to-head within the Bowerman Mile on the Eugene Diamond League. This matchup might be precisely two months earlier than they probably face one another once more on the Paris Olympics.
For Ingebrigtsen, this mile might be his first race of the 2024 season after lacking eight months resulting from an Achilles damage. For Kerr, he’ll head into this race with confidence, coming off one other world title on the World Indoor Championships within the 3,000m, and a two-mile world greatest he set on the Millrose Video games in February.
To summarize the meat between the 2: Ingebrigtsen known as him “simply the following man” after Kerr beat him for gold in Budapest final August. Kerr responded by saying his feedback and showboating come from a spot of insecurity. The back-and-forth went silent through the fall with Ingebrigtsen sidelined, however then Kerr reignited the speak by saying in an interview with The Guardian that he thinks Ingebrigtsen has some main flaws. Ingebrigtsen clapped again by saying if the final two world 1,500m finals had been run again, he’d beat him and Jake Wightman 98 out of 100 instances. Ingebrigtsen didn’t cease there; after Kerr set his two-mile world-best on the 2024 Millrose Video games, he mentioned he would’ve crushed him blindfolded.
In current interviews, Kerr has declined to touch upon Ingebrigtsen’s remarks about him and the Norwegian has not stopped the chatter. In a current interview with The Occasions, he mentioned, “The most important challenge is giving folks like Kerr consideration.”
The Bowerman Mile discipline on the Prefontaine Basic is destined to be a traditional and an announcement race for these two males inching towards the Paris Olympics. A person wanting so as to add some firepower to the sector is American Yared Nuguse, who appears to have gone the Switzerland route on this rivalry. Nuguse is coming off a silver medal behind Kerr at World Indoors and positioned second to Ingebrigtsen within the mile on the Prefontaine Basic final 12 months in 3:43.97, smashing the long-standing American document of three:46.91 from 2007.
Whatever the consequence, it’s one that each one observe and discipline followers will possible need to keep in mind and mark on their calendar.
