Kerr Runs 3:44.3 Mile To Break 43-Year-Old Record; Karissa Schweizer Ties Women's Record, Wins By Two Seconds

By Oliver Hinson for DyeStat

NEW YORK CITY - On a sunny 65-degree day with a slight tailwind, Josh Kerr enjoyed what may have been the best race of his season. 

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The 2023 world champion in the 1,500 meters won the New Balance 5th Avenue Mile presented by NYRR in a time of 3:44.3, smashing Sydney Maree’s course record of 3:47.5, which was set in the race’s first edition in 1981. He was all by himself as he crossed the line, beating runner-up Josh Hoey by more than four seconds.

Kerr sat comfortably towards the front in the first half of the race, but just after the halfway point, he found another gear, leaving the pack in his dust.

"It was a good day," Kerr said. "I'm fit and healthy and I'm happy. 

"I was coming here to break a course record that was pretty old, so I was focused on myself."

Hoey, who ran 3:48.9, was not one of the favorites heading into the race, but with the way his season was going, he said he knew he had a shot at being in the top pack.

“I know I’m not worse than these guys, and I deserve to be here,” Hoey said. “I knew I was going to race with confidence like I always do… I didn’t travel to Europe for nearly as long as these guys, I just missed out on Paris, so I knew I was gonna be a little bit fresher.”

Behind Hoey was Kenya’s Amon Kemboi, who was 11th in last year’s race. Kemboi ran 3:49.3 Sunday, which will not count as a mile PB due to the course’s elevation profile but is nonetheless nine seconds ahead of his current PB.

Vincent Ciattei, the fastest of five Under Armour Dark Sky Distance athletes, repeated his fourth place finish from last year with an almost identical time (3:50.6 this year; 3:50.3 last year). Rounding out the top five was Robert Farken, the German national champion in the 1,500 and 800 meters and an Olympic semifinalist in the 1,500.

Two other big-name Olympians, American training partners Bryce Hoppel and Hobbs Kessler, toed the starting line, but  neither felt fresh. Kessler ran 3:52.1 for ninth place, and Hoppel ran 4:00.7 for 18th. Both said they were feeling tired after months of racing, and they were simply looking for an exciting race to cap off their seasons.

“I felt like it was a fun way to end the year,” Kessler said. “I knew I wasn’t super fit anymore, but I thought it was a fun way to go out. (I thought that) maybe I could cheat it a little bit on the downhill.”

The women’s race nearly saw another course record go down, with Karissa Schweizer tying Laura Muir’s course record of 4:14.8 from 2022. Schweizer, a member of the Bowerman Track Club and an Olympian in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, was also a bit of a surprise to see at the front. She doesn’t often race mid-distance races or road races in general, but her strength helped her survive the quick pace today.

Schweizer and Kenyans Susan Ejore and Dorcas Ewoi pulled away from the pack at around the halfway point, trading the lead a few times after that.

A little after the three-quarter mark, Ewoi took the lead, but she started to kick a bit too early. Schweizer, looking straight ahead, charged past Ewoi and earned a commanding victory, beating Ewoi by more than two seconds.

“I feel like I’ve just been getting momentum going as the season’s actually ending,” Schweizer said, “but it’s been fun to just race and have fun and not really have pressure going into these races. Even the night before, I was just like, ‘Maybe I can win this thing.’ So I feel like I just tried to speak it into existence.”

Ewoi, representing Puma, ran 4:17.3. She said that as they were running down the home stretch, she thought the finish line was closer than it was, which was why she started her kick so early. 

“I actually didn’t know what I was doing,” Ewoi said. “We came down so quickly on the downhill, and I saw the finish line and I thought, ‘It’s time to go.’ And then we kept on going, and it kept getting farther away. I made a dumb move.”

Ewoi said the race would be a learning experience and that  she would need to study what happened so she can race the right way next year.

Behind her, Ejore ran 4:18.3. She said she went out too fast at the beginning, and that the road mile “feels like sprinting the whole time.”

However, not all was lost from her quick start; because she led at the halfway point, she earned a $1,000 bonus in addition to her $2,500 prize for third place.

Rounding out the top five were Melissa Courtney-Bryant, who was third in this race last year and ran 4:19.9, and Gracie Morris, who ran 4:20.4. Morris’s performance was unexpected; prior to this race, her mile PB was 4:35.

Towards the back of the pack was Emma Coburn, who broke her ankle during a race in China in April and has spent the last several months in recovery. Coburn finished 19th with a time of 4:37.2, which she said was a disappointing result, but she expressed happiness with simply being able to run again. 

“My overall time was pretty slow, but it’s all in perspective,” Coburn said. “I’ve been running on the ground for two months and working my butt off, but obviously, I haven’t been able to compete… like I said, this was disappointing, but still a positive step. I think a lot of people in my position would have had their surgery in May and just called it a year, so I’m proud of the work I did and I know it was worthwhile.”