AS if the industrious folk in the United States’ glass cube of a London Embassy didn’t have enough on their plate this week, Josh Kerr was pestering them to do him a deal. Paperwork and cash, in exchange for an American visa. A no-brainer, as The Don might call it.
Forced back home to Edinburgh while the diplomatic wheels slowly rolled, the former European junior champion kicked his heels and watched the clock until the stamp of approval finally came through.
“I feel like Trump must have pushed it through for me,” he grins. “So I might have to become a fan.”
Yet while Mr President was squeezing in a mini-break in Ireland after his UK visit, Kerr skipped town, back to the grind and the action. And despite a 20-hour journey to Oregon with his updated passport, he will shrug off any jet lag and dart straight on to the track at tomorrow’s Portland Trail Festival with a maiden 800 metres outing of the summer.
Familiar faces will abound, with fellow Scot Neil Gourley and Charlie Grice – whom the then-teenager beat to a world championship spot in London two years ago – also pitching up for some West Coast fervour. Kerr plans to remain in those parts in the months, and indeed years, ahead with his post-collegiate base now established in Seattle where the Brooks Beasts team, aligned to the shoe company with whom he has signed a lucrative deal, is located.
Many Britons, including his rival and childhood mentor at Edinburgh AC, Chris O’Hare, have based themselves in the US. Kerr has still to properly pit his wits on the Diamond League or the European circuit that is bread and butter for most. Shorn of most of his university commitments (his new visa, with peculiar logic, prohibits him from doing too many classes to complete his Masters in New Mexico), the 21-year-old will nonetheless postpone a return to the Old Continent until the British trials for the world championships beckon in August.
“We tried to limit travel as much as possible,” he says. “I spoke to my coach and said I’d rather be in a lower-standard race, pushing paces and racing my team-mates rather than travelling on my own around Europe and getting into races which might be only of a little better standard. I’m surrounded by incredible athletes and we’re working off each other. So I feel it’s a safer play.
“But Neil Gourley and Charlie Grice are in Portland too so I won’t be short of good quality competition. I raced Chris O’Hare in California this month so I’m seeing most of my British rivals. A lot of them are over here. I just don’t see the appeal of hopping around. I went to Leuven last year and had a base there but I was training on my own. You’re not at altitude. Then you’re going here, there and everywhere to race. That doesn’t suit me.”
His short exile in Scotland spirited him back in time, to pubescent training sessions in the wind and rain, when this life was merely something for the imagination. Trump’s America does him just fine.
“I enjoy being in this set-up,” he adds, “and I think it will benefit me in the long run.”
Elsewhere, Eilish McColgan – fresh from landing the Doha qualifying time in the 1500m in Rome on Thursday – will return to the 5000m at tomorrow’s Blankers-Koen Games in Hengelo with Guy Learmonth running the 800m following a promising opening to his campaign in Asia.
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