Josh Kerr and Jakob Ingebrigtsen are both world-class runners. But what I like even more about the pair is their world-class pettiness.
The two middle-distance runners have been engaged in a long-standing war of words. And it’s one of the best things that’s happened to athletics for years.
The duo are fierce rivals on the track and off it, take pretty much any chance that presents itself to slag each other off. And I love it.
Across the years of their rivalry they have, to their credit, rarely crossed the line into abusive and instead, have managed to throw (seemingly absolutely heartfelt) insults that have produced an objectively hilarious and entertaining soap opera.
Kerr claims Ingebrigtsen’s best quality was “his dress sense”, while Ingebrigtsen shot back that Kerr was “a moron”, which is, in the grand scheme of things, a pretty inoffensive insult. They’ve accused each other of a lack of respect and both seem to be genuinely desperate to beat each other.
What’s been so delicious about the rivalry between the Scot and the Norwegian, both of whom have legitimate claims to be considered one of the very best 1500m runners the world has ever seen, is that they have a very real dislike for each other, and both are as as petty as each other.
There’s no UFC-type offensive trash-talking here. Instead, the insults thrown are just very funny, and very entertaining to watch.
And so add their trash-talking to the fact that both were, for several years, the two men who were consistently in contention for major championship medals and it made for a brilliant advert for athletics.
The pair both had the beating of each other on their day - at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (in 2021), Ingebrigtsen came out on top to become Olympic 1500m champion while at the 2023 World Championships, it was Kerr who won gold. At the 2024 Olympics, Kerr once again crossed the line ahead of Ingebrigtsen, with the Scot winning Olympic silver and Ingebrigtsen outside of the medals in fourth place, with both pipped to gold by American, Cole Hocker.
It was around this time that the Kerr-Ingebrigtsen rivalry was being touted as the greatest that track and field had ever seen. It’s perhaps a stretch to put this pair ahead of Coe and Ovett, Kipchoge and Bekele, Lewis and Johnson or Gebrselassie and Tergat, but the Kerr-Ingebrigtsen matchup is certainly up there. And there’s also few arguments that it’s been tremendous for athletics in terms of increasing interest and coverage.
There has, over the past couple of years, though, been a major setback in the Kerr-Ingebrigtsen rivalry, and that’s the fact that they haven’t raced each other.
The duo haven’t gone head-to-head since the 2024 Zurich Diamond League meet just over two years ago (where Ingebrigtsen was second and Kerr fifth), and track and field has been all the poorer for it.
Finally, the rivalry will be reignited, the on-track part of it anyway - the off-track part never really having disappeared entirely despite the lack of head-to-head races.
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At the World Athletics Ultimate Championships, which takes place from Friday until next Sunday in Budapest, Kerr and Ingebrigtsen will, once again, race each other, although this duel very nearly didn’t happen. This is a new event, which is aimed at adding another major championship to the track and field calendar, and qualification is based on holding a major title, or world ranking. The problem for both Kerr and Ingebrigtsen was they neither qualified by right, with both having raced sparsely this year - Kerr through choice and Ingebrigtsen through injury.
However, World Athletics did the right thing and extended invitations to both men - I’m all for sticking to the rules but when they result in two of the best runners (and two of the most marketable athletes) missing out, a bit of rule-bending must be welcomed.
So, for the first time in two years, the pair will line-up alongside each other, and their match-up promises to be as intriguing as ever.
Ingebrigtsen has only recently returned from a lengthy injury lay-off and so his form is less certain. The initial signs upon his return have been encouraging. The Norwegian won 5000m gold at the European Championships last month and although both his 1500m appearances this season - he was fourth at both the Silesia Diamond League meet and the Diamond League Finals - were considerably slower than his best-ever over the distance, Ingebrigtsen looks in good shape.
With Kerr, there’s no doubt as to quite how good his form is.
First, he broke the 27-year-old mile world record in July in astonishing fashion - Kerr’s performance in London was, in my eyes, one of the great track and field performances of all-time - and he followed that up with an impressively dominant display to win Commonwealth Games gold on home soil in Glasgow last month.
What adds further to this long-awaited head-to-head is there is still no love lost between the duo. While it appeared they were softening slightly towards each other post-Paris Olympics, the trash-talking has already restarted before they even meet on the track, with Ingebrigtsen claiming that Kerr is “ruining athletics” with his decision to skip last month’s European Championships.
And so all the signs are that rekindling of the pair’s rivalry next weekend will be as entertaining as ever.
On paper, Kerr has to be the favourite to win the 1500m title at this inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship. His form this summer has been truly scintillating, with the only question being has he managed to maintain the peak that saw him set a new mile world record seven weeks ago? I suspect he will still be, if not in world record form, then certainly in something close to it because Kerr is not one to lace up his spikes if he does not believe fully he will win.
It’s harder to predict Ingebrigtsen’s form. This will be only his second 1500m this year and it is hard, if not impossible, to be at one’s best with so little racing in one’s legs.
But Ingebrigtsen did not need to compete in Budapest and so it’s likely that he believes he can find the form needed to give Kerr a run for his money.
This will, of course, be far from a two horse race. Also included in the 13-man field are Olympic champion, Cole Hocker and world champion, Isaac Nader, and so it could, as happened at Paris 2024, end up with neither Kerr nor Ingebrigtsen crossing the line first.
This is, though, exactly the kind of race track and field needs. Anticipation levels are high for this match-up between Kerr and Ingebrigtsen and so now, all we need to do is sit back and enjoy one of the great head-to-heads in sport.
