Josh Kerr of Britain breaks the men’s mile world record that stood since 1999

LONDON — Josh Kerr, the British runner who helped stoke a revival in middle-distance drama on the track, added a new chapter Saturday by running the mile in 3 minutes, 42.66 seconds to break the 27-year-old record for the distance.

At a Diamond League meet in London, Kerr broke Moroccan great Hicham El Guerrouj’s mark of 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds, set in Rome in 1999. The 28-year-old native of Edinburgh celebrated with a lap of honor at London Stadium.

“It was just me, my shoes and the track,” he said. “I was absolutely deaf in that last 110 meters.”

Kerr finished more than three seconds clear of American Yared Nuguse, at 3:45.69.

In an interview with the BBC, Kerr said the crowd support as he closed in on the record was “just incredible.”

“I didn’t take my foot off the gas,” he continued, “but ... I started to glide and I was like, ‘Oh wow, this feels incredible.’ It’s incredible because I’m slowing down. So, I was like, ‘I better get to the line.’ So, crossing the finish line, seeing 42-something — anything — was my goal, so it was great.”

The 28-year-old Kerr’s previous best time was 3:45.34 in 2024.

Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the 2021 Olympic champion, put a charge in the slightly shorter but more widely contested 1,500-meter race in the lead-up to the Paris Olympics, going back and forth on a number of issues, including Kerr’s suggestion that his rival could only run his top times with the help of pacesetters, the likes of which aren’t allowed at major championships.

Kerr, who won worlds at the distance in 2023, frequently sparred back and forth with Ingebrigtsen on the track and online in the early 2020s. When the Paris Games rolled around, Ingebrigtsen faded to fourth while American Cole Hocker pulled a huge upset, with Kerr finishing second.

Last year at world championships, Ingebrigtsen faltered in a preliminary heat while Kerr pulled up lame and limped into the finish in a race won by Issac Nader of Portugal.

This year, with no worlds or Olympics on the schedule, Kerr made the mile his key target. It’s a distance that isn’t run as much in big events but that still has huge historical significance, most of it surrounding Roger Bannister’s breaking of the once-intimidating four-minute barrier in 1954.