By Luke Baker

Copyright independent

Defending champion Josh Kerr goes for back-to-back 1500m golds at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, with the highly anticipated showdown set to deliver fireworks despite the shock absences of Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Cole Hocker.

Kerr triumphed in Budapest two years ago and is aiming to emulate the likes of Mo Farah, Jess Ennis-Hill and Seb Coe by winning consecutive World Championship golds, but the 27-year-old will go into the final without facing two of his biggest rivals.

Norwegian star Ingebrigtsen crashed out in the first round after an injury disrupted year, before the American Hocker, who beat Kerr to Olympic gold in Paris last summer, was controversially disqualified for “jostling” in his semi-final.

There are still plenty of other threats, with the 20-year-old Dutch rising star Niels Laros widely regarded as the favourite, not to mention two other Scots in the 2022 world champion Jake Wightman and Neil Gourley.

Follow all the action, results and analysis from Tokyo below