By Brooklynn Loiselle
Josh Kerr of Brooks Beasts cooled down after winning his 800-meter race by running up a hill near Lewis and Clark College at the Portland Track Festival on Sunday. Every few minutes, however, Kerr stopped, peered over the fence and watched the high performance heats of the men’s 1,500 meters.
Although he was happy with his individual performance, Kerr had larger goals in mind.
The NCAA 1,500-meter record holder won the 800 meters in 1 minute, 46.06 seconds, a four-second improvement since the last time he ran the event at the 2018 Mountain West Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Kerr sat at the back of the pack for most of the race, running a 53.28 split that put him over a second behind teammate Brannon Kidder’s lead time of 52.16.
The race picked up in the second lap, with Kerr running a 52.77 split while Kidder ran 54.34, finishing in third. Charlie Da’Vall Grice of Nike also made up ground on Kidder in the final straightaway, finishing second in 1:46.47 in his first race back since suffering a torn plantar fascia tendon earlier this season.
Kerr’s coach, Danny Mackey, credited the race’s slow start to Kerr’s success. “Psychologically, for him he stays in a race,” Mackey said. “So, you don’t really like if you’re trying to beat somebody like him, you want to get away from him. You don’t want to try to out kick him.”
Sunday was the first time that Kerr has done any speed work this season. In May, he ran a 13:28.66 in the 3,000 meters.
“The main time I was doing these eights was like after a 15 at conference or something like that, so I haven’t really had a good hitter one yet,” Kerr said. “That’s probably my first time that I’ve been able to really smash one and get one that I’ve been training for.”
While Kerr was pleased with his performance on Sunday, his eyes are set on the 1,500 meters and a potential berth at the IAAF World Championships in September.
“Everyone’s been doing off distance for a while, and it’s nice to see some of the guys in the mid-distance,” Kerr said. “It’s getting me excited.”
Kerr’s coach has even longer-term goals.
“God willing, I could be working with this guy for 15 years,” Mackey said. “I’m really glad that he is who he is, and he’s very talented.”
Kerr plans to make his professional running debut in his marquee event next weekend at the Brooks PR Invitational.
