Bowerman Mile: Beyond the Big Three

“Motherf**k the big three … it's just big me.”
Kendrick Lamar on “Like That” by Future and Metro Boomin

Hip-hop fans would know we’ve been living through one of the greatest beefs of all time lately as a long-simmering antagonism between heavyweights Kendrick Lamar and Drake exploded in a series of vicious diss tracks.

The feeling of “Oh shit, did he just say that?” has been next level.

Sport, of course, has its own traditions of self-aggrandizement, brinkmanship and trying to throw an opponent off their game. So many examples to choose from, but the three times Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met in the ring gave us zingers that many people might know better than the fights themselves.

Ali: “Joe Frazier should give his face to the Wildlife Fund. He's so ugly, blind men go the other way.”

Frazier: “If we were twins in the belly of our mama, I'd reach over and strangle him.”

Of course, as fans, we live for this.

It's in that spirit we can celebrate the history of trash talk between two of the greats of contemporary middle-distance running: Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr.

But the 2024 Bowerman Mile, when these two giants will race head-to-head for the first time since Scotsman Kerr upset his Norwegian rival, the current Olympic champion, in the 1500m at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, promises to be much more than a two-horse race.

Race organisers previously announced three headliners: Kerr, Ingebrigtsen and US champion Yared Nuguse. In homage to Kendrick (who was shooting towards the Drake-aligned J. Cole), we’ll call them the big three. But, with the full field announced, the race is now so stacked it could go almost any way. It could even be more interesting than the Olympics 1500m that is, ostensibly, the most important middle-distance event of the year and this four-year Olympiad.

Let’s do some scene setting before returning to the race and what Jakob and Josh have said about each other.

What is the Bowerman Mile?
The Bowerman Mile, a premier event at the Prefontaine Classic, is named in honour of coach Bill Bowerman (1911–1999). It’s run at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene, aka “TrackTown, USA”. It’s a legendary venue, known for its crowd energy as much as its history, which goes back to the university’s coach, Bill Hayward, who took over the track and field program in 1904 and led a host of athletes to Olympic medals and world records. In 2022, when the United States hosted the World Athletics Championships for the first time, it wasn’t in Boston, New York or Chicago; it was at Hayward Field.

The one-mile race has been run as part of the Prefontaine Classic since 1975 but was only named the Bowerman Mile in 2000, following the coach’s death.

Okay. So who was Bill Bowerman?
Bill Bowerman was a coaching legend and the co-founder of Nike. He revolutionised track and field at the University of Oregon, producing 24 NCAA individual champs, 33 Olympians and 12 American record holders. Bowerman's maverick spirit didn't stop at coaching; he famously crafted the first Nike shoe with a waffle iron. His eye for talent and his skills at getting the most from his athletes, along with his knack for innovation, made him a trailblazer, someone who forever changed the landscape of athletics and sportswear.

That’s cool. And what’s the Prefontaine Classic?
In 1973 and 1974, the university staged two Hayward Restoration meets to help raise funds to replace the deteriorated wooden West Grandstands at Hayward Field. But in 1975 one of the university’s main middle-distance stars, 24-year-old Olympian Steve Prefontaine, was killed in a car accident near Eugene. Good looking, charismatic and supremely talented, from 1973 to 1975 “Pre” had set American records in every distance from 2000 to 10,000 metres. His tragic loss at such a young age can be compared to Kelvin Kiptum’s more recent death, also in a car crash – running lost a hero, someone who was reshaping the sport and whose best years (especially if Prefontaine had later turned to the marathon) still lay ahead of him.

The whole Hayward Restoration meet of 1975 was going to be named the Bowerman Classic and was scheduled for 7 June. Following Steve’s death on 30 May, and with Bowerman’s blessing, it was renamed the Prefontaine Classic and took place for the first time just eight days after his passing.

In 2023, the Prefontaine Classic was held as the Diamond League Final for the first time. The Diamond League is a worldwide series of 15 annual elite invitational track and field meets. It sits in the top tier of World Athletics’ one-day competitions. The 2024 Pre meet is again the Diamond League Final.

Why is this particular mile an important race?
The Bowerman Mile ranks alongside Oslo's Dream Mile and New York's Wanamaker Mile as one of the world's premier track mile races. It's a rare example of a major international mile event, given that the 1500m is typically more common.

At last year’s Bowerman Mile, Jakob Ingebrigtsen (remember him?) won in a time of 3:43.73 with the aid of pacing lights and pacemakers Erik Sowinski and 17-year-old Australian Cameron Myers, who’s competing himself this year. Ingebrigtsen missed Hicham El Guerrouj's 1999 mile world record by .60 seconds but still ran the fastest mile in 24 years and the third fastest mile in history at the time.

Wait, how long is a mile?
One mile is exactly 1609.34 metres. It’s 1760 yards. Fun fact: only the USA, Liberia and Myanmar still use the imperial measurement system. No comment.

And who’s running in the Bowerman Mile this year?
The full field comprises Geordie Beamish (NZL), Matthew Centrowitz (USA), Reynold Kipkorir Cheruiyot (KEN), Mario García (ESP), Lamecha Girma (ETH), Neil Gourley (GBR), Oliver Hoare (AUS), Cole Hocker (USA), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR), Josh Kerr (GBR), Hobbs Kessler (USA), Abel Kipsang (KEN), Cameron Myers (AUS), Yared Nuguse (USA) and Jake Wightman (GBR).

Why is this year’s race causing so much excitement?
Well, that field is insane. The headline is that Kerr is the current world champion and Ingebrigtsen is the reigning Olympic champion.

While nothing that happens on Saturday will change either of those facts, there is a good deal of pride and ego at stake. It's also seen as a precursor to the Olympics in August, which will settle that title. The next Worlds aren't until September next year, so Kerr can keep that title for a while yet.

Below the main headline, here's some more detail on our three frontrunners.

Ingebrigtsen is the world record holder in the indoor 1500m, having taken this honour in 2022. In June last year, he added a new “world best performance” (WBP) of 7:54.10 in the two-mile outdoor race at the Diamond League Paris meet. The previous time had stood for 26 years. (The two-mile race is no longer a world record distance, and World Athletics only recognises a WBP in that distance, but that’s just semantics.) He not only won the 2023 Bowerman Mile (and the two before that) but also went on to win the 3000m the following day. He has every right to see himself as the reigning king of Hayward Field.

Kerr set a new two-mile indoor world best of 8:00.67 at the Millrose Games in February this year; he made his 2024 outdoor season debut with an 800m win (an event he doesn’t consider to be his main thing) in the Oregon Relays at, you guessed it, Hayward Field last month. He’s also the current world champion in the 3000 metres indoors.

Nuguse is the North American outdoor record holder over 1500 metres and one mile, and the North American indoor record holder for the 1500 metres, one mile and 3000 metres. He’s the fourth fastest miler ever and won the prestigious indoor Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games in February.

The last three times they met, Kerr beat Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m at Budapest, Ingebrigtsen beat Nuguse in the mile at Eugene, and Kerr won over Nuguse in the 3000m indoors at Glasgow. You could read that as Kerr > Ingebrigtsen > Nuguse but that would be misleading. Ingebrigtsen has gone 12–2 over Kerr in the 1500m, and the pair has never met in the mile.

Then there is the rest of the pack, and any one of them could pull off an upset on the day. (All records below are for 1500 metres unless stated.)

Centrowitz won the second-last Olympics, in 2016. Kiwi George Beamish is the current indoors world champion.

Last time he was at Eugene, in 2022, Wightman won World Championships gold, relegating Ingebrigtsen to silver while Kerr placed fifth. Dealing with injury last year, he missed Budapest but has only been improving across his 2024 season since his February trip to Australia. At the Maurie Plant meet in Melbourne, in the John Landy Mile, he took silver in a close finish behind Stewart McSweyn and in front of young Cameron Myers. The following week, at the NSW Milers series in Sydney, Myers took 1500m gold ahead of Jesse Hunt and then Wightman for bronze.

Reynold Cheruiyot (no relation to Timothy) won the 2022 U20 worlds and last year at Pre he set a new U20 world record for the mile; he did less well in open competition at Worlds last year, finishing eighth.

The Aussie young gun, Myers, is already being called the future of the 1500m – last year he broke the world record for the fastest mile by a sixteen-year-old and became the second-youngest person in the world to ever have run a sub-four-minute mile. (The younger sub-four runner? Jakob Ingebrigtsen. But Myers was more than two seconds faster when he broke through.)

Fellow Australian Olli Hoare arrives in Eugene having just won the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix and is still looking to clinch a spot on the Australian Olympic team. Hungry.

Staying at the Grand Prix, Hobbs Kessler – already the North American U20 record holder – won the 800m there last week. In February, he took silver behind Nuguse in the Wanamaker Mile. In March, after leading for most of the race, he took bronze at the Indoor World Championships after fellow American Cole Hocker kicked home to take silver behind Beamish.

Making things even spicier, Ingebrigtsen has a 17–0 record against everyone (except Kerr, crucially) in this field over the mile, but this will be his season opener after missing the 2024 indoor season due to an Achilles injury. He’s been very online about his training regime though and is saying he’s in great shape. File that one under “more ways to troll Josh Kerr”.

Oh yeah, you said we’d talk about this Jakob vs Josh beef?
For sure. That’s raised the temperature a whole lot, which is just another reason it’s great for the sport when guys like this go off on each other.

Jakob, the outdoor two-mile world best holder, has had much to say about Josh, especially since Kerr set the indoor two-mile world best in February. That’s when we got the defining quote of this whole thing, with Ingebrigtsen saying, “I would have beaten him in that race, blindfolded. But it’s good that people run better than they have done before.”

Ha-ha – the masterstroke in that isn’t even the widely quoted blindfold bit but the damn-him-with-faint-praise kiss off afterwards.

Kudos to Citius Mag for their definitive timeline of the barbs traded by these two. The following section offers up some of the choicest quotes, but if you want more, head over there.

But the war of words really began after Kerr managed an upset to win the Worlds 1500m final on 23 August last year. Afterwards, Ingebrigtsen claimed he wasn’t feeling 100% and that his legs weren’t there for him after 500 metres.

A couple of days later, Kerr called out Ingebrigtsen’s showboating in the semi-final, saying it came from a place of insecurity and was a clear tell of the Norwegian’s weaknesses.

“The last time he did that [showboating] was after he was beaten by Wightman in the heats of the 5000m … I do think it comes from a place of insecurity, where something has happened and he’s frustrated and he’s not the attention that he normally is when he’s won world records and really fast times.

“When that happened, it didn’t annoy me because he did it … Something happened in that race. I was like, ‘Yeah, there’s a weakness right there.’”

On 27 August, Ingebrigtsen won the World Championships 5000m in a photo finish. Asked if he planned to race Kerr again later in the season to get even after his 1500m loss, Ingebrigtsen said no and called Kerr “just the next guy”.

“That’s how I see the race,” Ingebrigtsen said. “Obviously, if you stumble or fall then someone is going to win the race, and he was just the next guy.”

In early November, Kerr went on the Sunday Plodcast and dropped some bombs about Ingebrigtsen not being good in non-paced races. (Keep in mind that Diamond League races, like the final in Eugene, use pacers aka “rabbits”.) Kerr’s comments went mostly unnoticed until Letsrun.com picked up on them a couple weeks later in an article that soon went viral, but here is some of what he said:

“I do think people will start realising that a little bit now, but I don’t think he will, because the ego is pretty high on this one,” Kerr said. “He was paced in 2021 for his Olympic gold medal by (Timothy) Cheruiyot …”

Time out. That’s a huge dig right there.

“If you really look at it, he doesn’t win a lot of non-paced races. I would love for him to be listening to this,” Kerr continued.

“There was a question asked to him earlier on in the season: ‘Are you worried about the world championship not having a pacer and all this stuff?’ And his answer was, ‘When the pacer drops out, I am the pacemaker.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, you have, you have no idea. You’ve won so many races, you’ve run fantastic all season – you must be surrounded by so many yes men that you don’t realise that you have weaknesses.’ I think that was part of his downfall. If he doesn’t realise that he’s got some real major weaknesses, then he will not win the 1500-metre gold medal next year. I’m okay with that.”

In January, The Guardian asked Kerr for further comment on his podcast remarks. He said, “I was merely pointing out that he has flaws, and I don’t think he knew that. Myself and Jake Wightman have shown where those flaws are. And I think he has some flaws in the manners realm as well.”

Rude!

“I’m not saying I’m a better time trialer than him, because I don’t know if I am. But I think come championship day, I am the best athlete in the world,” Kerr continued.

In early February, in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad, Ingebrigtsen said he was feeling good about recovering from injury and was feeling confident about his next meeting with Kerr and Wightman.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll win next time anyway,” he said. “I know that I win 98 out of 100 times against them. Hopefully, it will be a long time until next time. But we never know when time number 99 will come.”

On 2 March, Kerr won the World Indoor Championships 3000m title in Glasgow. After the race, he was asked whether he thought Ingebrigtsen had seen it and how he might react. Kerr suggested he was only interested in running his own race: “I’m not sure if he watches BBC2. I’m putting these performances together for myself and not anyone else. I’m really just becoming the athlete I’ve wanted to be.”

A week later, Ingebrigtsen expressed a similar sentiment to The Times but with a touch more boastfulness.

“I’m going to say my competitors are irrelevant in the way I see them [as] all the same,” he said. “One of the main issues is they are very inconsistent and that means my rivals are always changing. From 2017 I have had 10 to 12 different rivals. It’s easier for them to have a rival in me but not as easy for me to have a rival in them.”

In other words, “Motherf**k the big three [or 10 or 12] … it's just big me.”

That’s why Saturday matters. It’s time for Josh and Jakob to throw down – and there can only be one winner. (And we’re not saying it can't be someone else entirely.)

Clearly both these dudes like to talk a big game. So, are they – or anyone else in the field – going to break the one-mile world record?
Never say never. Keep in mind that Jakob was only .60 seconds off the WR last year. With the added push of such a stacked field, anything could happen. For the savants among you who’re right now saying “it depends on the weather”, the Weather Channel is predicting a mild, cloudy day with low wind and a slight chance of rain.

Hold up, didn’t you already say the Olympics are on this year? So this is just an entrée for the main course?
That’s right. This year, the Bowerman Mile also serves as a preview of what we can expect from the Paris Olympics 1500m, for which the men’s event is taking place on 2–6 August. (There is no mile race at the more international, and therefore more metric, Olympics.) While some of the guys at Eugene might not be on the first-round start line in Paris, some others will. Expect top athletes like Azeddine Habz (FRA), Isaac Nader (POR), George Mills (GBR) and Ingebrigtsen’s compatriot Narve Nordås to line up.

Okay, cooool. Until then, where can I watch the Bowerman Mile?
You mean other than at Hayward Field, right? Depending on where you are, the best thing to do is check the Diamond League website. If you’re in the States, it’s on NBC Sports. If you’re in Australia, try the Diamond League YouTube channel. The race is scheduled for 1:50pm Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) on Saturday 25 May – that’s 6:50am Sunday AEST.