Josh Kerr is uncertain if the “best year” of his career will even be enough to land him on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist despite bookmakers backing him as the second-favourite to win.
Kerr’s 1500m victory at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship on Sunday night capped off a season that also saw him win the 3000m indoor title, break the mile world record in London, and, just a few weeks later, win the mile at his home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In another year Kerr would be a shortlist shoo-in, but 2026 also happens to be the season fellow Briton Amy Hunt became the first athlete in history to win four gold medals at a single European championships.
“SPOTY is massively important,” said Kerr. “Everyone grew up watching it, it’s a massive award, and I would be truly honored to be on that shortlist against some of the best athletes of all time this year. I would love to go, but it’s not a given, that’s the reality.”
Kerr thinks it is “awesome” to have competition from within his own sport.
He said: “Amy’s had four European gold medals, and I was just sitting at home. I’m joking! But look, she’s had a fantastic season. She deserves to be there, and I’m just trying to create my resume as well.”
There is precedent for two athletes from the same sport to land on the shortlist.
Last year, Lionesses Chloe Kelly and Hannah Hampton both made it. The second most recent occasion was in 2019, when both Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson were included.
From a “personality” point of view, Hunt and Kerr have made excellent cases. Both took a risk when they laid their ambitions bare – his to set a new mile world record, and hers to do what no other athlete in European history had done before.
In interviews and on social media, both were refreshingly candid, unafraid of failure, and endeared themselves to the public, generating a level of interest in athletics rare for a year containing neither an Olympic Games nor a world championships.
“I mean, outside of an Olympic year, I can’t give any more than that,” said Kerr. “That’s everything that I can give to the sport. This has genuinely been the best year of my career.”
Hunt said it would be “incredibly special” for two track athletes to be honoured by SPOTY.
“It shows how much athletics has been able to break through the cultural current this year,” said the sprinter, who also collected 100m Commonwealth silver this summer.
“I get messages every day from people saying, ‘I fell out of local athletics, I stopped watching it, I stopped doing it, but watching Europeans has really made me kind of fall back in love with it, and I’m training again, or I’ve done my first Parkrun’, and that’s really really incredibly special for us.”
Hunt is looking forward to an eight-week break, an opportunity to be a “normal 24-year-old” for a little while.
She added: “I’ve learned how to find consistency in the chaos, to be able to handle myself, compose myself, deal with the attention and my whole world changing,
“I’ve done 40-plus races, 60 flights. There’s not going to be a single year that’s harder than this one.”
