Glasgow got its Commonwealth Games hero - and the feeling is mutual

Every big sporting event needs a superhero and the new world mile record-holder turned out to be the one wearing the cape.

This was a stripped-back, no frills Commie Games but Kerr brought the swagger and for that we should all be grateful, not least Phil Batty. The Glasgow 2026 chief executive will do a round of media interviews this morning during which he should be doffing his cap to Kerr.

Empty seats were a common sight at these Games but not on Saturday night at Scotstoun. Everyone wanted to see Kerr and those lucky enough to get tickets would not have been disappointed.

The portents weren’t particularly promising - it was cold and windy and the big temporary stands at each end looked exposed - but Kerr rose to the occasion and left his rivals in his wake, finishing over a second ahead of second-placed Australian Cam Myers, the man seen as his main threat in the Commonwealth Mile which was revived for these Games after a 60-year absence. Fellow Scot Jake Wightman seemed at one point as if he would push Kerr all the way but had to settle for sixth.

Kerr has embraced these Games from the start, relishing the chance to wear the Scotland vest. While other high-profile track athletes such as Keely Hodgkinson and Dina Asher-Smith skipped the Commonwealths in favour of the European Championships, Kerr has seized a rare opportunity to represent Scotland on the global stage - “the Commonwealth Games means so much to me,” he said. He will not compete at the Europeans in Birmingham later this month.

“I'm in such a lucky position, man,” he said. “We have these home championships where I can come out and perform at my best, and I'll never take that for granted.

“Europeans is coming up that I won't be performing at. This is all I had, everything that I've got. Coming out into London [where he broke the world record] and performing at that stage, and then to come out here and being able to be in front of a Scottish crowd, I'm very lucky. But you can't hold that peak for that long. I need to go back to the drawing board a little bit and give myself a bit of a rest, or else I'm going to be flying close to the sun here for a bit.”

Kerr spent the best part of an hour after his race signing autographs, posing for selfies and chatting with fans at Scotstoun, many of them young children. It’s clear he doesn’t take his success for granted and there is a willingness to give back. He expressed gratitude to all Scottish Athletics had given him as a kid coming through and it was especially poignant for him to win at Scotstoun, a venue at which he had raced regularly in his formative years.

“I warmed up along the path that I'd warmed up as a kid, and Julian [Florez, his assistant coach] said: ‘How you feeling?’ I was like, ‘To be honest, the pressure of this feels genuinely nothing [up] against [when] 12-year-old Josh spent eight hours here in the heat and final. My parents spent their whole day here, and I was like, ‘I have to go out there and perform as much as I can.’ That felt like pure pressure.

“For this, I'm well prepared. I love this kind of championship stuff, and I owe a lot to Scottish Athletics, I really do, and that's not me just saying it. There were times in my career where I was really down in the dumps. They pulled me out that hole and sent me in the right direction.

“And everything I can do when I wear that Scotland vest is really special. It's something slightly different, and to have it every four years and to be able to do it in front of a home crowd, you just can't get better than that. So I appreciate all the work they've done for me, and I'm glad I'm able to pay that back a little bit now.”

Bump and grind in final

While it wasn’t a particularly fast race - Kerr’s time of 3:54.12 was over 12 seconds slower than his world record run in London last month - there was plenty of bump and grind and it looked at one point as if the Scot had been boxed in.

“When you go out and run a world record, and the first race back is a mile, you've got to go out and perform properly,” Kerr reflected. “And I was very happy with how that went. I thought it would be a little argy-bargy when I was boxed in. People were cagey, and with 300 to go, it was just time to press. I had a lot of energy left, and I didn't want to leave it up to the last 100. So I had some time to enjoy it in the last 100 as well.”

He certainly did that, geeing up the spectators in the main stand as sped to the line. He also said that having Wightman alongside him gave him the confidence to know he wouldn’t be boxed in for long.

“The thing with boxes is the person that can open it is the person on your right-hand side, and the person on [my] right-hand side is one of the best milers of all time in Jake Wightman,” said Kerr.

“I trusted that, if things move, then I know he's going to open it for me. So I just tried to stay relaxed the first 800, not spend too much energy, keep an eye on where the big dogs were, and start making my move.

“And with 300 to go, I was going to wait. We're running into the wind. These guys are tired. Let's try and start pressing and bring it to them. And I knew I had a couple more gears in the last 200. And Jake is so good over the last 200 as well. I was like, ‘I need to go early. I need to go from a strength standpoint and the speed’.”

In the end, Kerr had too much for Wightman, Myers and the rest. And the Glasgow Commonwealth Games had its hero.