As Josh Kerr prepares for a men’s 1500m with more intrigue and mystery than a Seicho Matsumoto novel, he wants to make one thing clear. He is, without any doubt in his mind, the man to beat at these world championships.
Kerr knows that everyone is bigging up Niels Laros, the staggeringly talented 20-year-old from the Netherlands who won the Diamond League final, and the 18-year-old Kenyan Phanuel Koech, who thumped him in London. Cole Hocker, the American who pipped him in an Olympic final for the ages, is one of many other dangers too. But as he prepares for Saturday’s heats, there is no mistaking Kerr’s supreme confidence.
