It’s official. We have now a date set for top-of-the-line rivalries in observe and area proper now. Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen will race for the primary time since final 12 months’s World Championships on the Prefontaine Traditional in Eugene, Ore., on Could 25.
JUST ANNOUNCED: Three of the world’s finest will face off in The Bowerman Mile at this 12 months’s Prefontaine Traditional
💎 Ingebrigtsen 🇳🇴
💎 Kerr 🇬🇧
💎 Nuguse 🇺🇸Tickets begin at simply $25. Don’t miss out ⬇️
— The Prefontaine Traditional (@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 because of an Achilles harm. 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 finest he set on the Millrose Video games in February.
To summarize the meat between the 2: Ingebrigtsen known as him “simply the subsequent 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 have been run again, he’d beat him and Jake Wightman 98 out of 100 occasions. Ingebrigtsen didn’t cease there; after Kerr set his two-mile world-best on the 2024 Millrose Video games, he mentioned he would’ve overwhelmed 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 largest subject is giving folks like Kerr consideration.”
The Bowerman Mile area on the Prefontaine Traditional is destined to be a basic and an announcement race for these two males inching towards the Paris Olympics. A person trying so as to add some firepower to the sphere 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 Traditional final 12 months in 3:43.97, smashing the long-standing American file of three:46.91 from 2007.
Whatever the consequence, it’s one that each one observe and area followers will possible wish to keep in mind and mark on their calendar.
