‘Going to be war’: Josh Kerr feeds off Glasgow energy to qualify for mile final but one Scot doesn’t make it

Kerr, the new world record holder, wasn’t downplaying the race which has been billed as the blue riband event of the Glasgow 2026 athletics programme.

“It's going to be a war out there,” said the Edinburgh runner who expects he and Wightman to maximise the benefits of their familiarity with the Scotstoun track. “For us, it's home ground, it's our track. That's what we grew up racing on and where we learnt and it's our crowd.

“The rest of those guys want to take what's ours and they're going to have to come with something about them on Saturday night because they're not going to get it easy.”

Geeing up the crowd

Kerr seemed to revel in his return to Scotstoun, feeding off the energy of the home crowd as he moved to the front halfway through the second lap. Coming into the home straight, he couldn’t resist geeing up his supporters in the main stand and they responded as he finished first in a time of 3min 58sec, ahead of Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot and Australia’s Samuel Tanner.

“For a Wednesday morning in Glasgow, you have got to think that's an awesome crowd,” said Kerr. “I felt good, I know how privileged I am to have a home championship.”

Kerr, 28, remains on course for a memorable summer double. Part one has been completed in sensational fashion, with the Scot breaking Hicham El Guerrouj's mile world record which had stood for 27 years, clocking 3:43.13 at the London Diamond League earlier this month. Part two is winning Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow.

“It is very different to go from racing a clock to racing these guys - these are some of the best milers in the world,” said Kerr.

Clipped from behind

Ollie Hoare, the Australian who won the 1500 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham four years ago, was clipped from behind in the second lap of the first heat and trailed in ninth. Only the top six from each heat qualified for the final and Australia later lodged an appeal.

There were no such problems for Wightman, Kerr’s old Edinburgh AC friend, who was second in the second heat, finishing in a time of 3:54.05, behind Cam Myers (3:53.85), the young Australian sensation who will be the main threat to the Scottish pair on Saturday night.

Wightman, like Kerr a former world 1500m champion, is no fan of heats but ground it out.

“I had to remind myself that nobody likes these heats,” he said. “This morning when I woke up, I was like, ‘Oh, this is grim’. But we're all in the same boat. You’ve just got everything to lose, so the only thing you have in your head is like, ‘right, just don't make any mistakes’, and just top six is all that mattered with it.

“And there was a point when Cam started pushing that it was like we could go with this, or we could allow it to drag us away from the field. And I feel like it was enough of a primer ahead of Saturday, but not too much to overexert or anything.”

Unfortunately, Neil Gourley could not make it a hat-trick of Scots in the mile final as a season disrupted by injury and illness caught up with him.

"I've been struggling all year, to be honest with you,” said the Glasgow runner who finished ninth in the second heat. “Just not good enough today, unfortunately, which is the way it's been this entire year, trying to come back from some injuries.”