LONDON (AP) — Josh Kerr, the British runner who helped stoke a revival in middle-distance drama on the track, added a new chapter Saturday by running the mile in 3 minutes, 42.66 seconds to break the 27-year-old world record for the distance.
At a Diamond League meet in London, Kerr broke Moroccan great Hicham El Guerrouj’s mark of 3 minutes, 43.13 seconds, set in Rome in 1999. The 28-year-old native of Edinburgh celebrated with a lap of honor at London Stadium.
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Britain's Josh Kerr celebrates after winning and breaking a world record in the Men's 1 Mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium, Saturday July 18, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Britain's Josh Kerr wins and breaks a world record in the Men's 1 Mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium, Saturday July 18, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Britain's Josh Kerr celebrates after winning and breaking a world record in the Men's 1 Mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium, Saturday July 18, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Britain's Josh Kerr celebrates after winning and breaking a world record in the Men's 1 Mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium, Saturday July 18, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
“It was just me, my shoes and the track,” he said. “I was absolutely deaf in that last 110 meters."
Kerr finished more than three seconds clear of American Yared Nuguse's second-place time of 3:45.69.
In an interview with the BBC, Kerr said the crowd support as he closed in on the record was “just incredible.”
“I didn't take my foot off the gas," he continued, “but ... I started to glide and I was like ‘oh wow this feels incredible.’ It's incredible because I'm slowing down. So, I was like ‘I better get to the line.’ So, crossing the finish line, seeing 42-something — anything — was my goal, so it was great.”
The 28-year-old Kerr’s previous best time was 3:45.34 in 2024.
Kerr, the 2023 world champion, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the 2021 Olympic champion, put a charge in the slightly shorter but more widely contested 1,500-meter race in the leadup to the Paris Olympics. They went back and forth online and on the track over a number of issues, including Kerr's suggestion that his rival could only run his top times with the help of pacesetters, the likes of which aren't allowed at major championships.
When the Paris Games rolled around, Ingebrigtsen faded to fourth while American Cole Hocker pulled a huge upset, with Kerr finishing second.
Last year at world championships, Ingebrigtsen faltered in a preliminary heat while Kerr pulled up lame and limped into the finish in a final won by Issac Nader of Portugal.
This year, with no worlds or Olympics on the schedule, Kerr made the mile his key target. It's a distance that isn't run as much in big events but that still has major historical significance, most of it surrounding Roger Bannister's breaking of the once-intimidating four-minute barrier in 1954.
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Britain's Josh Kerr celebrates after winning and breaking a world record in the Men's 1 Mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium, Saturday July 18, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Britain's Josh Kerr wins and breaks a world record in the Men's 1 Mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium, Saturday July 18, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Britain's Josh Kerr celebrates after winning and breaking a world record in the Men's 1 Mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium, Saturday July 18, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
Britain's Josh Kerr celebrates after winning and breaking a world record in the Men's 1 Mile final during the Novuna London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium, Saturday July 18, 2026. (Adam Davy/PA via AP)
PARIS (AP) — Firefighters across Europe struggled against multiple fires Friday as a new wave of record-breaking heat baked a swath of the continent, their task further complicated by exceptionally parched landscapes.
The historic temperatures are linked to human-caused climate change, and are hitting countries more designed for long cold seasons and ill-equipped for this sort of heat, with limited air conditioning.
With France experiencing its driest year ever, a new fire raced through woodlands overnight in the Landes region on the southwest coast. The blaze forced more than 500 people to evacuate their homes in the town of Luglon as hundreds of firefighters deployed to the area, the regional administration said Friday.
It’s one of several fires scorching forests around France this week, including in normally cooler and wetter regions in the north and Brittany. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.
France also has shut down six nuclear reactors in recent days because of extreme heat and drought — and because a mass of jellyfish washed up outside one power plant on the English Channel coast, utility company EDF said. Large numbers of jellyfish are appearing on many French beaches in connection with unusually warm sea temperatures.
In a statement, the company said the shutdowns had minimal impact on France’s electricity production. It said extreme weather poses no safety risks to the reactors themselves.
In the central English town of Stourbridge, where a huge blaze started Thursday, TV footage showed the fires consuming houses, with many left without roofs as flames burned inside the charred walls. About 20 to 30 homes were completely destroyed, Stourbridge lawmaker Cat Eccles told the BBC.
A woman who was evacuated from her home in Stourbridge said police knocked on her door and urged her to leave immediately.
“They thought the fire was changing directions, and they didn’t know which direction it was going in,” Jane Baxter told BBC Radio. “So, it was literally ‘grab what you need and get out.’”
Simon Tuhill, chief fire officer of West Midlands Fire Service, said an investigation will be launched but the fire was believed to have started in the grassland before spreading to homes nearby.
The Met Office, the official weather agency, said 38.1C (100.6 F) was recorded in west London on Thursday, marking the hottest day of the year. While temperatures cooled slightly on Friday, many parts of the country have seen little to no rain for weeks. This July has been the driest in England and Wales since records began in 1836.
Spanish authorities on Thursday night transferred the remains of three 11th Century kings from a monastery in the northeastern Aragón region near an active wildfire.
The remains were taken to a museum about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the 10th-century San Juan de la Peña monastery, which remained unharmed Friday, according to regional authorities.
Paintings, liturgical objects and the clothes of a notable 18th-century Spanish count were among the other items removed from the monastery.
The wildfire was not yet contained midday Friday with some 800 residents evacuated. Temperatures were expected to cool slightly Saturday.
A separate, much larger wildfire in southern Spain has burned more than 300 square kilometers (120 square miles) in the province of Huelva, also forcing evacuations.
All 1,800 residents of the village of Gey in western Germany were evacuated after a wildfire with shifting winds in the nearby Hürtgen forest threatened to reach their homes. Nearly 300 hectares (1.16 square miles) of forest were ablaze on Friday morning, local authorities said.
Unexploded ordnance from World War II in the forest hampered firefighting efforts, German news agency dpa reported.
The fire advanced to within 300 meters (1,000 feet) of Gey, which sits on the edge of the forest near the Belgian border. The cause of the blaze remains unknown.
In Croatia, 14 people were hospitalized, of whom seven remained in life-threatening condition early Friday, from a fire that raged overnight by the coastal town of Omis and forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate their homes.
The fire erupted late Thursday in an Omis suburb and quickly spread because of strong wind. Public broadcaster HRT said the blaze came close to the town’s center. Witnesses told HRT that people were jumping into the sea after boats also caught fire.
Firefighters put out the blaze by Friday morning as other crews in planes headed further south toward the Peljesac peninsula where another wildfire broke out overnight.
Albania has been battling dozens of wildfires in recent weeks, with 11 active fires reported across the country Friday.
The largest fire is in the Gure-Lure area, where the perimeter near residential homes has been brought under control.
Three people have been prosecuted over that fire, which engulfed Lura National Park. They are suspected of failing to take the necessary measures to protect and safeguard the territory under their responsibility from fire, authorities said.
Meanwhile, in northern Greece, more than 300 vacationers and residents were evacuated by sea Thursday after a wildfire swept through a pine forest and threatened seaside homes, authorities said.
Belgium was expecting to hit its highest temperature of the summer on Friday, climbing to 37 C (98.6 F) in the capital, Brussels.
The mercury was also set to hit 37 C (98.6 F) in the neighboring Netherlands. The country is suffering from severe drought, with water shortages in some areas, but Dutch authorities have held off declaring a water crisis as rain is expected in the coming days.
Hui reported from London. Stefanie Dazio in Berlin; Claudia Ciobanu in Warsaw, Poland; Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo; Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia; Lorne Cook in Brussels; and Suman Naishadham in Madrid contributed to this report.
Smoke from a forest fire rises above the Hürtgenwald, in Düren, Germany, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Sascha Thelen/dpa via AP)
A view of a beach bar in the aftermath of a wildfire on the Adriatic coast near Omis, southern Croatia, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Josko Ponos)
Thick smoke drifts over the Gey district from a forest fire in Hürtgenwald, Germany, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP)
Residents and tourists evacuated from a wildfire gather inside a sports hall in Omis, southern Croatia early Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jakov Prkic)
A general view of a wildfire near Omis, southern Croatia early Friday, Aug. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Jakov Prkic)
A pharmacy sign displays a temperature of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Bordeaux, France, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, as a heatwave affects much of the country. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
A woman splashes water on her face at a public fountain on a hot day in Bordeaux, France, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026, as a heatwave affects much of the country. (AP Photo/Caroline Blumberg)
A safety signage to avoid fires is seen at Baitings reservoir near Sowerby Bridge as water levels drop throught the country, in Sowerby Bridge, England, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
A person holds an umbrella and walks through dry grass at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
