By Tom Victor

Copyright walesonline

One of the highlights of the World Athletics Championships arrives on Wednesday, with Josh Kerr going for gold in the 1500m. Only a handful of British athletes have won back-to-back world golds in the same event, with Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis-Hill already in that elite group. Kerr, 27, is one of three Brits in the final. His fellow Scot Neil Gourley came through a tight third semi-final and Jake Wightman led from the front in the fourth, but team-mate Elliot Giles was narrowly squeezed out. One man who won’t be involved is Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who was run out of it in the last of those heats after an injury-disrupted season. His absence means Kerr won’t be able to renew a rivalry which peaked when he pipped the Norwegian to victory in 2023 . We got another glimpse of that rivalry back in 2024 when Kerr broke Farah’s two-mile record. Ingebrigtsen wasn’t at that event, but claimed he would have beaten the Edinburgh athlete “blindfolded” – prompting Kerr to playfully snap back. “Us 1500m runners are an interesting breed,” Kerr said. “We all have got quite big egos, we all want to win and we think we’re the best ever. We’re not in a contact sport, so it’s this weird balance of all this s***-talking and going out and running fast. It’s fun and hopefully it’s interesting for people to watch. “Some things have been said on both sides but there’s no ill will. There’s mutual respect and we’re all looking to compete for an Olympic title. You’re finding a real clash of personalities and hopefully people enjoy it.” That was in February 2024, and the pair would have a chance to face off for Olympic gold in Paris just a few months later. In the end, though, neither came out on top, with the United States’ Cole Hocker claiming a shock win. Ahead of that Olympic final, Kerr revealed his mind games also extend to the sunglasses he wears when he runs. He might not be blindfolded, to borrow Ingebrigtsen’s words, but he does make sure to give nothing away with his eyes. “I first started wearing them in 2022 before the World Championships,” Kerr told Sky Sports in 2024. “I was looking for something to give me a bit more of an edge, a little bit different about me on that start line. “And the fun thing is that you can’t see my eyes when I’ve got them on. We sit from about 45 minutes to an hour before in a small room, and we all sit with each other, just kind of sitting down, not doing anything, all looking at each other. It’s nice people not looking at my eyes. So a lot of people are staring at me, asking me if I’m looking at them. So it’s just a bit of an edge.” Athletics is a game of small margins, especially in the highest-pressure events, and that goes for the psychological as well as the physical. Kerr has already claimed gold on the world stage once, and now he has the chance to do it all over again.