Josh Kerr ended Scotland’s 31-year wait for a world indoor title and did so on home turf as he stormed to 3,000 metres gold in Glasgow.
Kerr powered away on the final lap to win comfortably in 7:42.98, with defending champion Selemon Barega fading down the final straight as he was beaten to silver by American Yared Nuguse.
After disappointment for Laura Muir in the women’s 3,000m final earlier in the evening, Kerr’s victory sparked huge celebrations in the Emirates Arena.
“I think I burned more energy celebrating than I did in the race, which is a bit embarrassing,” Kerr, the world 1500m outdoors champion, said on BBC Sport. “This competition is so important.
“I’ve come to championships before not ready to have a real go at it and I feel I’ve let the UK audience down a bit in the way I’ve performed in front of them. It was really important to come here fit and ready to go and really execute.
“I came in without a solid plan, just really fluid. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t acting emotionally. I kept a patient head and then I could really send it with 400 metres to go.”
Muir set a season’s best time of 8:29.76, but that was only good enough for fifth as American Elle St Pierre set a World Indoor Championships record of 8:20.87 to take the win ahead of Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay.
Who else impressed?
At 19 years and 26 days, Italy’s Mattia Furlani became the youngest long jump medallist in World Indoor Championships history by claiming silver in the men’s event with a leap of 8.22m.
Mattia Furlani won silver in the men’s long jump
The teenager missed out on the title – to Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou – only on countback, with bronze going to Carey McLeod of Jamaica (8.21m).
Femke Bol stormed to victory in the women’s 400m and smashed the world record after clocking 49.17 seconds, lowering the previous mark of 49.24 she set two weeks ago at the Dutch national championships.
Dutch team-mate Lieke Klaver took the silver on Saturday in 50.16 and American Alexis Holmes ran 50.24 for bronze, while Great Britain’s Laviai Nielsen posted a person best of 50.89 to take fourth.
Reekie targets 800m success
Jemma Reekie delighted her home crowd by cruising into the final of the women’s 800m with a “perfect” performance. The 25-year-old Scot bided her time in second spot before passing Ethiopia’s Habitam Alemu on the final straight to win heat two in commanding fashion in a time of 1:58.28.
World No 5 Reekie progresses to Sunday’s medal race, starting at 9.20pm, as the fastest qualifier across the two semi-finals and had a warning for her podium rivals.
She told BBC Sport: “[It was] perfect planning – you’d think Jon [Bigg, her coach] knew a bit about this sport by now. [It was] really good. I’m in really good shape. Obviously the final’s going to be really tough, but I want them to know if they’re coming to win on my track they’re going to have to work hard. I think it will be a fast one.”
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