Josh Kerr ready to warm up his rivals in Eugene

Josh Kerr admits that he started mind matches before the final 1500m showdown with Timothy Cheruiyot and Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

The Scottish tennis player is aiming to improve his Olympic bronze medal at the World Championships on Tuesday.

Kerr won his heat on Sunday in three minutes 36.92 seconds, ahead of defending world champion Cheruiyot and Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen.

The two beat Kerr in Tokyo last year but, while admitting to having played against his opponents, he believes he has the experience to do more than just show off against Eugene.

“Beating them doesn’t make any difference, I do it just for a bit of fun,” he said.

“But that’s no fanfare of what’s going to happen on Tuesday. It will be a very different race. I’m working on my weaknesses and hopefully I can get better colors than bronze.

“I will give it everything I have. You’ll just watch me and hopefully play the best game I’ve played in my life. Hopefully I can go away with something better than I ever did.

“I have been running since I was 9 years old and I have learned many lessons over the years. This final will be the accumulation of 15 years of really hard work.

“Look at me in the innings. I’m making the most of the US time zone. This is where i live.

“I’m just taking every advantage and the smallest percentage I can get because last year I lost 0.4 seconds and I’m not going to lose that again.

“I came here to put on a show for everyone and hope I can start everyone’s day off well (in the UK).

“I just want to go out there and put in a lot of effort and they should know that I am giving my all for the UK. Hopefully we come up with some silverware. “