Josh Kerr beats American Cole Hocker, the man who pipped him to Olympic gold in Paris in 2024, to finish fastest in 7:35.56; Dina Asher-Smith suffers disappointment in women’s 60m final, finishing seventh; Keely Hodgkinson cruises through to Sunday’s women’s 800m final
Last Updated: 21/03/26 9:57pm
Josh Kerr celebrates his gold for Great Britain in the men’s 3,000m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships
Josh Kerr won gold for Great Britain at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Poland, reclaiming the men’s 3,000m title he first won two years ago in Glasgow.
The Edinburgh athlete bounced back from an injury-plagued 2025 to beat American Cole Hocker, the man who pipped him to Olympic gold in Paris, to finish fastest in 7:35.56.
Kerr, the 2023 world 1,500m champion, sustained a grade-two calf tear in the when defending his title at last summer’s World Championships in Japan, and credited his mum for his return to top form.
“From where we were in Tokyo to right now, having another world gold medal, that’s all down to coaching, it’s all down to physio and my mum. That’s a family win right there,” Kerr told the BBC.
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Kerr added that before these championships in Torun there was a time he could not even walk himself to breakfast, and that the speed of his recovery had surprised even himself.
He was not wholly pleased by how the race unfolded in Poland, however, but was nevertheless relieved to get the job done.
The Scotsman hovered patiently behind the pack leaders, picking his moment to surge in front with about 200 metres remaining, and managed to hold off a final-stretch fightback from Hocker, who took silver ahead of France’s Yann Schrub in bronze.
“For people watching, that is not how you win a world final,” Kerr said. “I knew that I had to get that close or else I might be having a pretty tough conversation with my coach.
“I was extremely fit coming into this. Obviously I had some problems coming into British champs, but this was the main goal.
“From a coaching and staff standpoint, and from just general work, I needed this one.”
Asher-Smith misses out in sprint final as Hodgkinson cruises through semi
Elsewhere, as part of the Saturday’s evening’s action in Torun, Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis won a fourth world title with a championship record 6.25m clearance.
There was disappointment, meanwhile, for British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith as she finished seventh in the women’s 60m final.
The 30-year-old had tied her own national record, 7.03 seconds, to qualify for the final, where her time of 7.07 wasn’t quite enough for a place on the podium.
“I’m disappointed, because I’m definitely in a great place,” Asher-Smith told the BBC. “I was hoping to go sub-seven today, but it just wasn’t to be. It is what it is.”
Keely Hodgkinson cruised into the women’s 800m final on Sunday
Earlier, in the afternoon session, Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson strolled through to the final of the women’s 800m as she controlled her semi-final from the front.
The Olympic champion is a hot favourite for gold after setting a new world indoor record of 1:54.87 in France last month, and she crossed the line here in 1:58.53.
“It was good to get back out there again. Looking forward to my day and a half off now,” the 24-year-old told the BBC with half an eye on Sunday’s final.
“Even if you’re not running at your full exertion, the adrenaline of coming to the stadium and getting on the start line, you still get nervous every round and you can underestimate how much energy it takes out of you.
“But this is the exciting part. I’ll see what we can bring tomorrow.”
