Britain’s middle-distance star Josh Kerr has broken the 27-year-old men’s mile world record after running a time of three minutes 42.66 seconds (3:42.66) to win the event at the London Diamond League on Saturday. 

The result meant that he broke the previous 3:43.13 record long-held by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj since 1999, as Kerr delivered his early promise to shatter the record. 

The United States’ Nuguse Yared came second in Saturday’s race after crossing the finish line at three minutes 45.69 seconds (3:45.69), while Britain’s Hayward Jake clocked three minutes 46.73 seconds (3:46.73) to finish third. 

The 28-year-old became the seventh British athlete to claim the mile record, and first since Steve Cram in 1985.

Reacting to making history, Kerr told BBC Sport that achieving the feat took an incredible amount of work after he had boasted he would break the world record. 

“It’s very overwhelming with the amount of hype [I created]. It’s silly to call [the attempt] that early because there’s a lot of things which can go wrong, but I am surrounded by amazing people and was able to stay consistent and put the work in,” Kerr said. 

He added, “If I am to leave my mark on this sport as a British legend, following in the footsteps of the legends behind me, I have to put in those performances.

“Those performances take every single part of you, every single part of your team. The amount of work behind the scenes is incredible. Today it was a performance I was able to bring out – I just hoped it would be a little bit faster!”

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Kayinsola Ajayi ran a time of 9.84 seconds (national record) to win the 100 metres event, beating reigning world champion Oblique Seville of Jamaica, who ran 9.87 seconds. 

Glave Romell of Britain finished third with a time of 9.97 seconds. The win marked a back-to-back Diamond League meeting victory for Ajayi after he defeated Seville in Eugene.