Josh Kerr and Molly Caudery claim world indoor gold for Britain

First came the sight of Josh Kerr roaring and punching the Glasgow air, adrenaline whizzing around him like a tornado. Then, 34 minutes later, we watched Molly Caudery crying and shaking her head, still adapting to the thrill of the new. And just like that Britain had two gold medals, two world indoor champions, and a glorious evening in a sport that has suffered its fair share of wobbles.

Naturally Kerr, who was born in Edinburgh, stole the majority of the attention of the home crowd. The world 1500m champion spent all winter mulling over whether to return to Scotland for these world indoor championships. But in the final of the 3,000m he was as decisive as a ­gambler who sticks it all on red.

We have long known that he feeds off confidence, he feeds off controversy, and he certainly fed off the will of 5,000 fans roaring him on. There were frequent surges in pace and then sharp elbows when the pack would bunch together. But with two laps to go, the 25-year-old moved out into the third lane and applied the afterburners. Gold was achieved in 7min 42.98sec with American Yared Nuguse claiming silver in 7:43.59. The Ethiopian Selemon Barega won bronze in 7:43.64.

“The Scottish and British fans packing out this stadium is the loudest I’ve ever been in a stadium,” said Kerr. “I knew I needed to keep a calm head and keep the heart rate down. It was an emotional day out there.”

It certainly was, and Kerr certainly celebrated to the full. “I think I burnt more energy celebrating than I did in the race,” he added. “That was a bit embarrassing. It wasn’t the cleanest race but I got it down and a world title is amazing. I feel pumped.”

But Caudery’s nerveless performance on a raucous night at the Emirates Arena was also rightly celebrated. She was up against a galaxy of pole vaulting greats, including Katie Moon – the 2020 Olympic and double world champion – and the 2016 champion, Aikaterini Stefanidi, and she beat them all with a clearance of 4.80m.

Caudery is an adrenaline junkie and a keen surfer. But she is making even bigger waves in this Olympic year. “I don’t have the words right now, but I can’t believe it,” she said. “I’m living my dream.”

Her ascent has certainly been vertiginous. Caudery started 2023 with a modest personal best of 4.60m. Since then she has come fifth in last year’s outdoor world championships in Budapest, cleared 4.86m – the highest vault in the world this year – and established herself as a bona fide gold medal contender for Paris.

What makes her story even more remarkable is that she nearly chopped her finger off while weightlifting at home in 2021 – an injury that required three surgeries to fix.

There had been a hope for a Scottish-tinged Super Saturday but earlier in the evening Laura Muir never really got into a lightning quick women’s 3,000m that was won in devastating fashion by the American Elle St Pierre.

To say the result was a shock would be massive understatement. The Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay came into the race as the world record holder and a prohibitive 1-8 favourite. But St Pierre, a dairy farmer who had her first child last year, clung to Tsegay’s shoulder all the way around before kicking off the final bend to win in a championship record 8:20.87.

Tsegay was second in 8:21.13, while Beatrice Chepkoech took bronze in 8:22.68. Muir was fifth in 8:29.76.

There was another surprise in the men’s 400m as Karsten Warholm, the world record holder in the 400m hurdles, was beaten by the Belgian Alexander Doom, who came through off the final bend to win in 45.25.

Britain’s Laviai Nielsen run a superb personal best of 50.89sec to come fourth in the women’s 400m final, but no one had an answer to the Dutch athlete Femke Bol, who broke her own world record in 49.17. Her compatriot Lieke Klaver took silver in 50.16.

Meanwhile there was controversy off the track as the men’s long jump winner, Miltiadis Tentoglou, attacked World Athletics’ plan to modify the event as “dog shit”.

The Olympic and world champion also promised to quit the long jump if plans to scrap the wooden board for a much larger “take off zone” were implemented.

“It’s dog shit,” said the Greek after adding another title to his collection with a leap of 8.22m. “If the rules are applied, I will stop doing long jump. Right now it is a very difficult event because you need to have accuracy, to be able to run like a sprinter and hit the board perfectly. Changing it would remove all the skill.”