Now for Josh Kerr to emulate Roger Bannister’s ‘Miracle Mile’

Jeremy WilsonSat, August 1, 2026 at 8:00 AM UTC

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Josh Kerr cruised to victory in the first men’s mile heat on Wednesday - Andy Buchanan/Getty Images

Just outside the Empire Field in Vancouver, nestled in the foothills of the North Shore Mountains, stands a statue of two athletics greats: Roger Bannister and John Landy.

It commemorates the 1954 Empire Games when the pair went stride-for-stride in what became known as the “Miracle Mile”, an epic contest that Bannister regarded as a greater triumph even than his first sub-four-minute mile. And the historic synergy with this Saturday night in Glasgow has become vast following Josh Kerr’s world one-mile record last month in London and the looming prospect of a showdown against an even more formidable Australian rival.

Yes, Kerr will start as favourite in front of his home crowd, but 20-year-old Cameron Myers has risen to first on the World Athletics 1500 metres rankings following a series of outstanding Diamond League performances. “It’s just a crazy era,” Jake Wightman said, himself a former world champion whose finishing speed also makes him a contender if the race does become tactical. “Cam’s the future of the sport, we’re the hanger-onners and we’ve got a nice crossover. I think it is probably going to be the race of the Games. In our event, the Commonwealths is so much harder than the Europeans.

“There’s not one person you probably could have added to make it any stronger. It will bring the whole world’s attention to it, which would be cool for the legacy of the Commonwealths.”

Jake Wightman, Cameron Myers and Kerr are expected to battle for gold on Saturday night - Peter Cziborra/Reuters

Wightman has known Kerr since they were schoolboy runners at Edinburgh Athletics Club and has also raced Myers this year. He believes that the Australian is potentially “the best of all time” but is also in awe at what Kerr did with his “Project 222” inside the London Stadium two weeks ago when he ran 3min 42.66sec to reignite global interest in the mile distance.

“It’s insane, if you break down the lap paces,” said Wightman. “It’s like 55-second laps … the average person will get nowhere near running a 100 metres at that pace. I thought it was impossible. When I saw his attempt, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s a nice little PR stunt but I’m not sure how close he’ll get to it… maybe a 3.43’.

“Watching it, the worst bit was thinking, ‘Christ, I’ve got to race him in a couple of weeks’. But I’m sure if you look back at the 1980s with the Coe-Ovett-Cram era, they’d all say they wanted to beat each other when they’re at their best. But it’s a championship, I’ll be more impressed with how he handles this week after a massive, massive high.”

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Kerr certainly looked to be relishing the challenge during Wednesday’s heats. With the Proclaimers booming out around Scotstoun Stadium, he qualified even while geeing up the crowd ahead of the Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot, himself a former world champion and Olympic silver medallist, plus the Australian defending champion Olli Hoare.

“I thrive in a pressure environment – I want as much pressure on me as possible,” said Kerr, who rates Bannister as his inspiration for how he followed up a mile world record with Commonwealth Games gold against the world’s best.

Like Wightman, Kerr has always prided himself on exemplary race craft and is acutely conscious of that switch after preparing almost all year for what was effectively a time-trial in London. The intriguing tactical dimension is that, with Kerr having shown himself to be strongest just now, Wightman and Myers will almost certainly be content to follow in the early stages and hope they have the fastest finishing speed.

“I pride myself on being good at championships,” Wightman said. “I know that I couldn’t do what Josh did in that world record which is why I’m in awe of it. But I love the fact you come to champs and it becomes both a physical and mental battle. I’d love it to be cagey. I know my strengths and I’ll always run to win.” Myers has also stressed that “I’m not here to come second”.

Does Kerr, then, still simply commit early with the risk of expending more energy as Jakob Ingebrigtsen has against him in recent global finals. Or could he himself wait? Kerr might be in such outstanding physical form that he can win any way he chooses. His coach, Danny Mackey, says that Kerr is “riding pretty close to the sun right now” and they know he is generally at his very best when the stakes are highest.

“The emotional comedown [from the world record] has been a lot,” Kerr admitted. “I’ve been spending time with my family, trying to take it day by day. I’ve been bouncing around with people I hung out with growing up, showing my wife some of the places I went training, going on runs with her.

“I went back down to Meadowbank [Stadium in Edinburgh], remembering my roots and how proud I would be of myself from being a young athlete there 15 years ago.

“It is very different to go from racing a clock to racing these guys. Jake’s in awesome shape and it’s some of the best milers in the world. But it’s our track, it’s where we learnt, it’s our crowd. The rest of the guys want to take what’s ours. They will have to come with something on Saturday night because they are not going to get it easy. It’s going to be a war.”

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Source: “AOL Sports”