On Sunday, Josh Kerr of Great Britain set a new indoor 2 mile world record at the 2024 Millrose Games, running 8:00.67 to take down Mo Farah’s time of 8:03.40. Kerr, the 2023 world champion in the 1500 meters, has developed a rivalry with Norwegian star Jakob Ingebrigtsen since beating him out for the gold medal last year.
It’s becoming increasingly more chippy—especially after Ingebrigtsen recently proclaimed that he could have beaten Kerr in the 2 mile “blindfolded.”
“It is not certain that [Kerr] runs any better now than last year at the same time; he did not run two miles then,” Ingebrigtsen, who owns the outdoor 2 mile world best of 7:54.10, told TV2 in Norway. “I would have beaten him in that race, blindfolded … But it’s good that people run better than they have done before.”
It’s not the first time the two have taken jabs at each other. In December, Kerr said on the Sunday Plodcast that he thinks that Ingebrigtsen has some “major weakness” that are proliferated by his ego.
But a month later, Kerr told The Guardian that he still has much respect for his Norwegian foil. “I’ve said it multiple times: [Ingebrigtsen is] very dedicated and he’s amazing at our sport,” Kerr said. “He also wants to be the best in the world and so I do, and that’s going to make us clash 10 times out of 10. I’ll always have respect for his performances. I was merely pointing out that he has flaws, and I don’t think he knew that.”
He did add, however, that he thinks Ingebrigtsen has some flaws in the “manners realm.”
Ingebrigtsen is currently coming back from an Achilles injury that he suffered last year after his honeymoon in the Maldives (although he did get in a beer mile during his bachelor party), so we likely won’t see a head-to-head matchup with him and Kerr until the height of the summer. But with the Paris Olympics on the horizon in August, it should make for some must-watch TV.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
Theo Kahler is the news editor at Runner’s World. He’s a former all-conference collegiate runner at Winthrop University, and he received his master’s degree in liberal arts studies from Wake Forest University, where he was a member of one of the top distance-running teams in the NCAA. Kahler has reported on the ground at major events such as the Paris Olympics, U.S. Olympic Trials, New York City Marathon, and Boston Marathon. He’s run 14:20 in the 5K, 1:05:36 in the half marathon, and enjoys spotting tracks from the sky on airplanes. (Look for colorful ovals around football fields.)
