“I’m f***ing exhausted”, said Josh Kerr in the immediate aftermath of becoming Commonwealth champion for the first time in his career.
It’s not the physical exertion that’s drained Kerr. Rather, it’s the mental and emotional strain of the past fortnight that’s really taken its toll on the Scot.
The Edinburgh man can, though, look back on a good two weeks of work.
A very, very good two weeks, actually.
This most successful spell of his career began with breaking the world mile record in London last month and ended, at the weekend, with the 28-year-old winning Commonwealth Games gold at Glasgow 2026 in the most dominant of fashion.
The Edinburgh man’s mile world record will attract the most headlines globally but, in many ways, his victory at Scotstoun Stadium on Saturday evening was equally impressive.
The 2023 world 1500m champion went into this home Commonwealth Games with pressure and expectation heaped upon his shoulders.
His status as pre-race favourite was entirely justified given he’d run 3 minutes 42.66 seconds to break a 27-year-old world record two weeks prior.
But championship racing is, as Kerr, and all his competitors know, a different beast.
The mile final at Glasgow 2026 turned out to be as contrasting a race from that mile world record as is humanly possible.
Rather than a foot-down time-trial, the opening two laps of the Commonwealth Games mile final were painful slow. Indeed, it took this world class field over two minutes to cover 800m. So slow were these men moving, there was considerable pushing and shoving, including from Kerr himself, as they jostled for position.
But the Scot was never worried that he’d lose the tactical battle.
“I thought there would be a little argy-bargy and people were cagey,” said Kerr of the final.
“It gets built-up as these one-on-ones but for me, it's just I had to go out there and race the guys ahead of me.”
In the end, Kerr made his move with 300m to go and showed just why he’s not only athletics, but global sport’s latest superstar. This race also included the fastest 1500m runner in the world this year, Cam Myers, as well as former world champions Jake Wightman and Timothy Cheruiyot but none were able to prevent Kerr from easing to a comfortable victory.
It was, from Kerr, an imperious display of dealing with pressure and any fears that his world record-breaking run had drained him were dispelled in that final lap.
The Scot admits he’s satisfied with how he’s managed to handle the past two weeks not only physically but mentally too - but almost as soon as he crossed the finish line on Saturday, the tiredness hit hard.
"It was a hard (two weeks). You’ve got to take a couple of days (after London) and then you keep battering along,” he said.
“My wife is here in Scotland, and my family and they pulled me back up (after breaking the WR) and said, back to work.
“My body felt great so that wasn't a problem but the mental exhaustion was there. So I tried to come out of it a little bit and then back in.
“And then to come out here and being able to be in front of a Scottish crowd, I’m very, very lucky. “But you can't hold that peak for long so I need to go back to the drawing board and give myself a bit of a rest or else I'm going to be flying close to the sun.”
This victory was particularly special for Kerr given not only was it on home soil but it was on the exact track on which he learned his trade as a young athlete.
And so to pull on a Scottish vest rather than a GB one - something track athletes do only at the Commonwealth Games - did, admits Kerr, make his Glasgow 2026 victory particular notable.
“I warmed up along along the path that I'd warm up as a kid and the pressure of this Commonwealth Games felt genuinely nothing compared to 12-year-old Josh who spent eight hours here in the heat and final,” he said.
“To wear that Scotland vest, it's really special. It's something slightly different and to have it every four years and to be able to do it in front of a home crowd, you just can't get better than that.”
Read more: Josh Kerr lives up to superstar billing to become Commonwealth champion
The European Athletics Championships begin in Birmingham next Monday but Kerr has opted to sit out the event. There remains a slim possibility that he may, if he wishes, be added to the GB team but the clamour now is, primarily, for the Scot to have a go at the 1500m world record.
Given his current form, there seems little reason why Kerr cannot threaten the 28-year-old world record of 3 minutes 26.00 seconds and while the Edinburgh man is aware that he’s very close to his peak, he admits there is, he believes, still a little left in the tank.
“I think that (the 1500m world record) is the one we're obviously going to go for,” he said.
“But I need to respect what the body's capable of - I'm a human being at the end of the day and I think there's not many races, we can go after it in the next couple of weeks.
“So I'm going to be honest and open about it. I'm going to sit down and have a meeting with my coaching staff and see what's possible the rest of the season.
“I'm good body-wise, I’m in a really good spot mentally but it's taken a big toll, for sure and I want to respect how difficult this last couple of weeks has been.
“I think we've got a little bit more in the tank but we're pretty close to maxing out here. This is the best I'm bringing so far.”
