Josh Kerr to skip World Indoor Championships ahead of Grand Slam Track

Exclusive: The reigning 1,500m and 3,000m world champion is set to prioritise Grand Slam Track after a bout of sickness

Josh Kerr has shut down his indoor season and will not defend his 3,000m title at the World Athletics Championships in Nanjing, China, next month.

The Briton outdid Olympic medallist Yared Nuguse to claim gold in a sizzling time of 7mins 42.98secs at last year’s world championships in Glasgow before winning silver in the 1,500m at the Paris Olympics last summer.

Kerr had planned an attempt at the world record for the indoor mile at New York’s prestigious Millrose Games earlier this month. But after coming down with sickness, the defending 1,500m world champion made a late decision to pull out of the Wanamaker Mile.

Nuguse went on to set a new world indoor record of 3mins 46.63secs, which lasted just five days before Kerr’s rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen bettered that mark in Lieven, France in 3mins 45.14secs.

After contemplating his options, Kerr will now skip both the British and world indoor championships to focus on Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track, with the inaugural meet in Jamaica on 4–6 April, before returning to the outdoor world championships in Tokyo, Japan in September, two years on from his historic gold in Budapest.

Josh Kerr was pipped on the line by Cole Hocker in a 1,500m thriller at last year’s Olympics (PA Wire)

“It’s a long year, it was important to make sure we took the time needed after Millrose. You have to have moments to allow the mind and body to reset – Millrose was screaming at me to do that but we’re now in the swing of things,” Kerr told The Independent.

“I think the overall decision is that we won’t run world indoors or any race indoors for the rest of the season. I think it’s just important, long years trying to make good decisions, to be consistent throughout the year. I’ve ran indoors for many years and I think there are lots of fun events. I think it’s a great event in our sport, it’s just not what the schedule is calling for this year.

“You have to work back from your biggest goals and see what that allows to happen. You can’t get too greedy at this part of the season when the body is fighting you. So, you have to be smart and it’s very difficult to do sometimes as an athlete, so you have to surround yourself with smart people. I don’t like to make these decisions on my own and I got a lot of help to make this decision.”