Track’s once-mythical record falls after 27 years — and hardly anyone noticed - New York Post

What the report says

The New York Post reported that British middle-distance runner Josh Kerr broke the long-standing men’s one-mile world record at the Novuna London Athletics Meet, held at London Stadium on Saturday, July 18, 2026. The Post framed the achievement as a major track milestone that passed with relatively little mainstream attention, noting that the event was available via FloTrack livestream rather than a broadly watched national broadcast.

According to the report, Kerr had been pursuing the mark through a goal he called “Project 222,” a reference to running the mile in 222 seconds, or 3 minutes, 42 seconds. The previous record, 3:43.13, was set by Morocco’s Hicham El Guerrouj on July 7, 1999. The Post’s article and photo captions identify Kerr as winning the men’s one-mile final and setting world, meet and Diamond League records in London.

The mile has long carried special symbolic weight in track and field, from the pursuit of the four-minute barrier to later attempts to push the event into increasingly rare territory. Kerr’s reported record matters because El Guerrouj’s time had endured for 27 years, spanning major changes in the sport, sports media and fan viewing habits.

The Post emphasized that the record’s fall may have been easy to miss despite its historical significance. Based on the available article text, the publisher did not provide the exact new record time in the excerpt, only that Kerr surpassed the prior world mark.