World 1,500 metres champion Josh Kerr concedes athletics’ entertainment value has “fallen behind” other sports.
The 26-year-old Scottish athlete stunned overwhelming favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen at August’s World Championships and now has his sights set on upgrading his Tokyo 2020 bronze at this summer’s Olympics in Paris.
Many remain concerned that athletics is falling out of favour with the British public, a predicament exacerbated by broadcast and sponsorship challenges and backed by evidence suggesting younger audiences are looking elsewhere.
Kerr told the PA news agency: “I would say we are doing what we can in terms of entertainment from an athlete’s perspective. We’re trying to create more rivalries. We’re trying to create more storylines, which I think we are doing better at, but we are a little bit behind other sports.
“A lot of it is about TV deals but I don’t really have much say or much knowledge of what’s going on behind the scenes.
“If I’m allowed to be in any of those meetings maybe I can have more of a say but right now I’m going to keep trying to make entertaining races and hopefully get good build-up and make people watch.
“That’s the best I can do right now. I’m not sitting here complaining about the viewership of our sport. I think sometimes you get what you deserve in terms of viewership, and if our sport isn’t exciting enough maybe some things need to change.”
UK Athletics (UKA) lost Muller, their title sponsor, in 2022 and failed to renegotiate a reported £3million-a-year broadcast deal with the BBC when it expired in 2020.
UKA has since secured shorter, multi-platform deals with the broadcaster, including its 2023 major events series, while the BBC in 2021 extended its agreement with World Athletics for five more world championships and also holds the rights to the Paris Olympics and Diamond League through 2024.
Some competitions have been shown live on BBC TV, but others have featured only on iPlayer, Red Button or the BBC’s website and app, sparking fears that a lack of visibility on flagship channels will contribute to a decline in athletics’ relevance – which some numbers suggest is a genuine concern.
The 2023 EY Sports Engagement Index, which considers both participation and how Britons engage with sports live, on TV and online, revealed that while athletics still cracked the overall UK top-20, placing 15th, it did not feature in the top-20 for the coveted Gen Z (18-24) demographic, who prefer basketball, boxing, MMA, and even badminton – although “running” fared better.
Kerr, who tries to treat the Olympics as “a regular day at the office” has embraced his growing celebrity largely because it allows him to give young athletes “access to the information that’s needed for them to achieve their goals and dreams”.
His own ambitions are clear.
Ingebrigtsen walked away with gold in Tokyo, but the Norwegian was beaten by Britons in back-to-back world 1,500m championships, Kerr succeeding compatriot Jake Wightman, who sat out 2023 with a foot injury but is set to kick-start his comeback at February’s Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne.
A potential Stade de France Olympic final featuring the three most recent world champions feels poised to become precisely the sort of must-watch TV storyline Kerr and his rivals are trying to write.
He added: “I am going to be in a position to be available for that medal.
“Everything changes every day. I might not be in this sport tomorrow. No one knows what is going to happen, so that’s my big goal. If someone says that’s cocky, that’s completely fine with me.
“They evidently don’t know me, and they don’t know what it takes to be an Olympic champion. That’s what I set in my brain. That’s the goal. Go out and get it, and if you can’t it’s OK.”
::National Lottery players raise more than £30million a week for good causes including vital funding into sport – from grassroots to elite.
Charlton donates world record singlet and bib to Museum of World Athletics
Devynne Charlton has donated her Bahamian team singlet and name bib from the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow to the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA).
The 28-year-old Charlton lowered her own world-record, which she set when she ran 7.67 in New York in New York on February 11, when she ran 7.65 to win her first global title in the Scottish capital.
She finished clear of France’s defending champion Cyrena Samba-Mayela. Charlton took silver behind the French athlete in Belgrade two years before.
Charlton handed over her Glasgow top to World Athletics President Sebastian Coe at the official press conference staged infield at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium in Nassau.
"Charlton’s near faultless final in Glasgow was one of two world records during a standout evening session," said Coe.
"On behalf of the Museum of World Athletics, I gratefully thank Charlton for her generous donation, which perfectly embodies her exceptional indoor season.
"In an Olympic year, it is worth reflecting that Charlton’s singlet joins an artefact of a sprint hurdling legend in the MOWA. Our museum’s collection holds the embroidered ‘Nederland’ badge which Fanny Blankers-Koen wore when winning the Olympic 80m hurdles gold, one of four victories achieved by ‘The Flying Dutchwoman’ at the London 1948 Olympic Games."
Charlton expressed joy and excitement at the donation.
"I am very happy to present my world indoor championship winning singlet and bib to the Museum of World Athletics. I will be excited to see them displayed online in 3D and exhibited around the world. I hope they help inspire future athletes and fans about the excitement of athletics,” she said.
"It is a great honour to have my achievements recognised in the museum alongside those of many all-time greats, whose careers I dream to emulate as I fulfil my track ambitions," she added.
Charlton’s World Athletics Indoor Championships winning kit will also sit with the shoes and clothing of two other world indoor 60m hurdles champions in the Heritage Collection of the MOWA.
Olympic champions Gail Devers of USA and Sally Pearson of Australia, respectively world indoor 60m hurdles champions in Birmingham 2003 and Istanbul 2012, donated their singlets, bib numbers and running spikes to the MOWA from their 2004 (60m gold, 60m hurdles silver) and 2014 (60m hurdles silver) world indoor campaigns.
Jamaica, Barbados engage partnership to enhance athletics in the Eastern Caribbean Island
If things go according to plans, then Jamaica and Barbados will execute a partnership with aimed at enhancing athletics training and coaching quality in Barbados.
This was revealed by Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Charles Griffith, who pointed out that plans are currently in the pipeline for a collaborative effort between the two island nations, which will involve an exchange of coaching expertise to elevate the standard of sports training.
“There’s a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) between Jamaica and us to exchange coaches to be able to work with them in terms of how we develop,” Griffiths revealed, adding that plans for the bilateral initiative was birthed by a similar partnership between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.
“I was in Washington at a conference and had a sit-down with Minister [Olivia] Grange, Minister of Sports in Jamaica. They have worked with Trinidad in terms of developing the coaches there,” he noted.
Griffith acknowledged that there are concerns about the current coaching standards in Barbados and, as such, emphasized the necessity of having highly skilled coaches to match the calibre of world-class athletes.
“I won’t push it at this meeting, but I’m concerned with the level of coaches. I think that if you’re going to have a world-class athlete, you must match that athlete with a world-class coach,” he declared.
That said, Griffiths pointed out that upcoming infrastructural developments are in place to complement ongoing sporting initiatives within the country.
“I’m looking to see how we can have that marriage where we can fuse resources together in terms of working with Jamaica to develop the athletes on island. Hopefully by next week or the week after, you will see work starting on the old netball stadium to turn that into a multi-discipline facility for netball, basketball, and volleyball,” he shared.
Muhammad, Little and Clayton headline stacked 400m hurdles field at Jamaica Athletics Invitational
The women’s 400m hurdles promises to be one of the most exciting events at the Jamaica Athletics Invitational set for May 11 at the National Stadium in Kingston.
The field will include a number of the world’s top hurdlers including global medallists including the likes of Rushell Clayton, Shamier Little and Dalilah Muhammad.
Muhammad won Olympic gold back in Rio eight years ago and took silver in Tokyo five years later. Her time in the Tokyo final, 51.58, remains a personal best and makes her the third-fastest woman ever.
At the World Championships, the 34-year-old won gold in 2019 in a then-world record 52.16. She was also among the medals in Moscow in 2013, London in 2017 and Eugene in 2022.
Clayton took bronze at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and had a similar result last year in Budapest with a personal best 52.81.
Little is a two-time World Championship silver medallist. The first came back at the 2015 edition in Beijing and the second came in Budapest last year.
Her personal best 52.39 was done back in 2021 and puts her fifth all-time.
Saturday’s field is completed by two-time Commonwealth Games champion Janieve Russell, Pan Am Games champion Gianna Woodruff, World Championship finalists Andrenette Knight and Anna Cockrell and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Shiann Salmon.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
