Josh Kerr steering clear of controversy ahead of UK indoors

Josh Kerr will huddle within the Emirates Arena today and count his blessings he is running indoors.
Josh Kerr reacts as he crosses the line in the 1500m semi-final at the 2019 World Championships. Picture: Jewel Samad/AFP via GettyJosh Kerr reacts as he crosses the line in the 1500m semi-final at the 2019 World Championships. Picture: Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty
Josh Kerr reacts as he crosses the line in the 1500m semi-final at the 2019 World Championships. Picture: Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty

The UK Indoor Championships in Glasgow represent the last leg of the 22-year-old’s whistle-stop tour home before he decamps back to his base in Seattle to rewind himself for an Olympic summer.

Many of his British contemporaries, Mo Farah included, are sunning themselves in the highlands of Africa to escape the torrents here. The sport’s endurance base at Iten – beloved by the four-time Olympic champion - offers an infusion of warmth. Not for me though, proclaims Kerr. Its lustre has worn thin with the raft of Kenyans failing drugs tests. Better, he thinks, to be nowhere near.

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“I mean it’s story after story coming out from Kenya or wherever over there -with the drug scandals and stuff. There’s so many question marks around it. I personally don’t want to be around that.

“I don’t want to have any question marks around my career. So, why put myself in a position to allow that to happen? I’m clean-cut. I’ve never done anything wrong. Why would I even want to go somewhere like that? Yeah, it’s a bit higher up in altitude but there’s no reason for me to go over there. And I will not be going over in my career.”

With China’s quarantine forcing a postponement of the world indoors, most British names of note have given the UK Indoors a wide berth. Athletics’ narrative, in the days ahead, will be dominated instead by the BBC Panorama investigation, to be screened on Monday, which promises fresh revelations about shamed coach Alberto Salazar and “new questions” about his relationship with Farah.

The entire endurance set-up will again come under the microscope. By moving from Edinburgh to Albuquerque for university, Kerr kept the programme at arm’s length. Armed with a lucrative contract with the Brooks Beasts club, he is able to float in and out as he pleases.

Preferable, he maintains. “If you’re living in a small bubble, like the inside of British athletics, there are little controversies, and there’s people trying to backstab each other.

“From an athlete standpoint, people are trying to beat each other within the UK. But, I’m just trying to race the best people in the world, full stop. It doesn’t matter where they are, who they are, I’m going to do that all year round. So, the position I’m in in the USA right now allows me to do that, week in week out.”

Sixth in the 1500 metres at October’s world championships in Doha, he drops to 800m this weekend. Merely reaching Tokyo in August is not ambition enough.

“I’ve shown,” he says, “that I can perform on a on a big stage.”