It’s official. We have a date set for one of the best rivalries in track and field right now. Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen will race for the first time since last year’s World Championships at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., on May 25.
JUST ANNOUNCED: Three of the world’s best will face off in The Bowerman Mile at this year’s Prefontaine Classic
💎 Ingebrigtsen 🇳🇴
💎 Kerr 🇬🇧
💎 Nuguse 🇺🇸Tickets start at just $25. Don’t miss out ⬇️
— The Prefontaine Classic (@nikepreclassic) March 12, 2024
After months of trash talk between the Olympic 1,500m champion, Ingebrigtsen, and the reigning world 1,500m champion, Kerr, the two will go head-to-head in the Bowerman Mile at the Eugene Diamond League. This matchup will be exactly two months before they potentially face each other again at the Paris Olympics.
For Ingebrigtsen, this mile will be his first race of the 2024 season after missing eight months due to an Achilles injury. For Kerr, he will head into this race with confidence, coming off another world title at the World Indoor Championships in the 3,000m, and a two-mile world best he set at the Millrose Games in February.
To summarize the beef between the two: Ingebrigtsen called him “just the next guy” after Kerr beat him for gold in Budapest last August. Kerr responded by saying his comments and showboating come from a place of insecurity. The back-and-forth went silent during the fall with Ingebrigtsen sidelined, but then Kerr reignited the talk by saying in an interview with The Guardian that he thinks Ingebrigtsen has some major flaws. Ingebrigtsen clapped back by saying if the last two world 1,500m finals were run back, he’d beat him and Jake Wightman 98 out of 100 times. Ingebrigtsen did not stop there; after Kerr set his two-mile world-best at the 2024 Millrose Games, he said he would’ve beaten him blindfolded.
In recent interviews, Kerr has declined to comment on Ingebrigtsen’s remarks about him and the Norwegian has not stopped the chatter. In a recent interview with The Times, he said, “The biggest issue is giving people like Kerr attention.”
The Bowerman Mile field at the Prefontaine Classic is destined to be a classic and a statement race for these two men inching toward the Paris Olympics. A man looking to add some firepower to the field is American Yared Nuguse, who seems to have gone the Switzerland route in this rivalry. Nuguse is coming off a silver medal behind Kerr at World Indoors and placed second to Ingebrigtsen in the mile at the Prefontaine Classic last year in 3:43.97, smashing the long-standing American record of 3:46.91 from 2007.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s one that all track and field fans will likely want to remember and mark on their calendar.
