Josh’s journey: From London Mini Marathon to three global titles

Monday 23rd March 2026

Scotland U15 Boys team at the London Mini Marathon in 2012 with Josh centre back and Jonny Glen centre front (photo by Neil Renton)

World beater! Josh imperious again to reclaim World Indoors 3000m crown

By Peter Jardine

Battery Park in Greenock was being battered by Baltic weather as organisers set up the Lindsays Young Athletes Road Race event for with a portable podium beside the seaside swing park.

An unlikely location, it would seem, for a prescient form guide on Josh Kerr’s bid for global supremacy on the track.

Wrong. Bear with us as we seek to explain . . .

A chance meeting with Jonny Glen, very much of that Inverclyde AC parish but now settled in New Mexico, saw the conversation turn to the impending World Indoors.

Jonny and Josh were Scotland team-mates at the London Mini Marathon more than a dozen years earlier and then became firm friends when both were at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

Now a fireman and a father in the States, the man who won GB and NI honours in cross country while living in Scotland nowadays still runs ‘about once a fortnight’ with his Edinburgh-raised pal.

So who better to tell us what the prosects of Josh medal success in Torun, Poland?

‘Look, all I can say is . . . Josh never races unless he is ready to win,’ Jonny told us.

‘I thought I was untouchable but sport is brutal’ – Josh: BBC Sport feature

Photo by Sam Mellish/British Athletics

‘He doesn’t race very often and he tends to prioritise the big championship events. He is in the happy position of choosing his moments.

‘I don’t know what will happen at the World Indoors – it definitely looks like a strong field.

‘But I do know if Josh feels he is on his game, then I’d back him against anyone.’

This was fully seven days before Saturday night fever in Poland, remember, but Jonny’s ‘eye witness’ observations struck a chord and came to mind watching that captivating Men’s 3000m final.

It was only Josh’s second race since limping over the line in Tokyo at the 2025 World Champs with a torn calf in the Men’s 1500m final.

After finishing second to Cole Hocker at the Millrose Games in New York, Josh then missed the British Champs with another minor issue.

Coach Danny Mackey, Team Josh and employers Brooks Runing and even physio qualified mum Jill somehow put him in a fitness space whereby he was capable of winning.

‘That was a story of redemption out there,’ he said in a video message from Torun.

‘It was a story of committing to the people around me and my coaching staff. I had to believe in them and that is a mentality I know every Scot has.’

Photo by Sam Mellish/British Athletics

Josh will return to these shores this week and hopefully can expect a hero’s welcome in Edinburgh.

His club, Edinburgh Ac, are well-versed now in rolling out the welcome mat for global medallists.

‘I want to thank everyone in athletics in Scotland for your support,’ he said.

‘I am coming home and I am going to try and share this gold medal with as many people as I can.

‘This is our gold medal, not just mine. I really appreciate all the support and all the love.

‘My goal is to continue to try and deliver medals on the world stage and hopefully represent everyone well. I am excited to be coming back to Scotland.’

That Young Athletes RR race in Greenock in March 2025 . . . with Josh finishing eighth (photo by Bobby Gavin)

Headed for London: Young Scots picked for Mini Marathon

A number of times on these pages, we have traced how our elite Scots came through the pathway of the Scottish events/development structure.

Like Josh, there are clear examples with Eilish McColgan, Laura Muir, Jemma Reekie, Neil Gourley and his EAC club-mates, Jake Wightman, Lynsey Sharp and Chris O’Hare.

On the eve of his latest global success, we named young athletes to compete for Scotland at the London Mini Marathon next month.

Studying online archives, the U15 Boys team from the London Olympics year of 2012 featured Josh (aged 13) and the aforementioned Jonny Glen. Josh was fifth and Jonny was seventh (with the race won by Kilbarchan AAC’s Euan Gillham).

Three years later, Josh finished eighth in the Young Athletes Road Races U17 Men’s race . . . and missed selection for London with the top four picked automatically. That race took place at Battery Park, Greenock.

Somewhere down the line he has honed race preparation to perfection; fulfilling a mantra often repeated by scottishathletics a decade ago: Perform When It Counts.

With now three global titles and medals at two Olympics, Josh Kerr has delivered spectacularly on that one. And justified the faith of his fellow Scot in New Mexico.