‘I would not prefer to race me proper now’ – Josh Kerr sends daring message to Jakob Ingebrigtsen

Kerr has the chance to vanquish one of his great rivals at the inaugural edition of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, and after his summer of success, he is ready to scoop up an autumn accolade.

Josh Kerr has never lacked for confidence and when you have a world record and a Commonwealth gold medal on home soil under your belt, it adds a little extra spring to an already bouncy step.

Now, Kerr has the chance to vanquish one of his great rivals at the inaugural edition of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, and after his summer of success, he is ready to scoop up an autumn accolade.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen criticised Kerr’s decision to skip the European Championships in Birmingham this summer, the Scot having missed the trials in the build-up to his mile world record bid in London in July when he erased Hicham El Guerrouj’s 27-year-old mark from the record books. His focus was instead on that record and then the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, breaking the mile record in the former before triumphing over the same distance in the latter.

Now he and his Norwegian rival are set to face off in Hungary for the first time since 2024, both added to the entry list for Sunday’s 1500m at the new-look event. And in typical fashion, Kerr has warned all his fellow competitors that he cannot envisage a scenario where he does not come out on top.

“I wouldn’t like to race me right now, I’d say that,” he told BBC Breakfast. “It’s going to be a tough one on Sunday for the rest of the field, that is what I would put it down as.

“(The world record) was just a fitness test for the Ultimate Championships!” Kerr joked. “I’m as fit as I was then, if not in a better spot. I’m excited and it’s the last race of the season, I don’t feel like I’m dragging myself there, I’m feeling very energised and ready to go.

“There are a lot of guys out there and my job is to beat every single one of them. (Ingebrigtsen) is a big name in our sport and our distance. It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be a hard race but I feel very confident in where I’m at and what the result is going to be on Sunday.”

Kerr will not be the only Scot in the field for the 1500m, with Jake Wightman looking to make amends for a season that has been marred by injury. It is far from the first time that the 2022 world champion has had to deal with the injury bug. But having spent the best part of the two years following his global crown in Eugene, Oregon, missing out on major events, Wightman returned to the World Championship podium last year with silver in Tokyo.

However, after a strong start to the outdoor season, he suffered calf tightness and then a back issue that required an epidural 10 days before the Commonwealth Games. As Kerr streaked clear to the acclaim of the Scotstoun crown, Wightman was run down on the final straight – usually his strength – finishing sixth.

A week later, it was a similar story at the Europeans in Birmingham, finishing in the same position over 1500m. And after the frustrations over those two races, the 32-year-old Wightman is not lacking for motivation in what he describes as the greatest men’s 1500m field ever assembled, with Olympic champion Cole Hocker and world champion Isaac Nader – who edged out Wightman last year – also in the field.

He said: “If I think my champs had gone the way I wanted, I think I would be feeling a lot less motivated towards this but because I don’t feel I’ve proved myself at all this year, this is my chance to do that. I’m excited to get a bit of redemption. I’m hoping I can come in under the radar, I think that is when I run my best. There is no talk about me which for better or worse, I’m going to try and go out there and do as well as I can.

“I hope it can be my best run of the year. But you are racing against perhaps the best field it’s ever been for the 1500m. The ‘ultimate’ test! Even without Jakob and Josh being added, it was tough, but with them it becomes the toughest field there has ever been. I think more than anything, if you go well here and manage to win it, it makes it an even more incredible achievement.”

The three-day event in Budapest marks a new era for athletics, with World Athletics president Seb Coe hoping that some of the innovations that will be on show – including a live draft for the 200m lanes, a new format for field events and the elimination of ties in vertical jumps – will be adopted at World Championships and Olympics in the future.

He said: “We want this championship to be an incubator for change. As a proud Sheffielder, I would call this a blast furnace, ultimately casting what our sport can look like going forward. We want to take some of those innovations into the World Championships and the Olympic Games.

“We know that our athletes are in peak condition, you only need to follow their journey through Diamond League this year and other events, to know that they are at the top of their game.

“We will see Olympic champions, we will see world champions, we will see the newly crowned Diamond League champions from last week in Brussels, freshly-minted world record holders and my goodness, this has been an extraordinary season for that. They are all hungry to compete.” With his mile world record from London, Kerr will be one of those main attractions and after the season of his life, this has the potential to be the perfect final flourish.

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