Brooks Beasts' Josh Kerr finishes second in British Championships to punch ticket to Doha...

BIRMINGHAM, United Kingdom—Josh Kerr (left/photo by Paul Merca) of the Seattle based Brooks Beasts finished second in the men’s 1500 meters Sunday at the British Athletics Championships to punch his ticket to Doha for the IAAF World Track & Field Championships that start late next month.

After a bit of a slow start, Kerr, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, closed with the fastest last 800m of the race, clocking around 1:48 according to Brooks Beasts coach Danny Mackey.

However, it was not enough to catch Neil Gourley, who competes in the US for the Nike Oregon TC, as Gourley won in 3:48.36 to Kerr’s 3:48.51.

Gourley and Kerr both have the world championships standard. Under British Athletics policy, the top two finishers in the British championships earn selection for the world championship team, with a third athlete a discretionary selection.

In a text to publisher Paul Merca, Mackey stated that Kerr will return to Seattle to prepare for Doha.

Washington alum Amy-Eloise Neale finished fifth in the women’s 5000 meters, as she ran 15:47.57.

Eilish McColgan won the race in 15:21.38.

Incidentally, Washington alum Jax Thoirs, who finished second in the pole vault Saturday, will only have until midnight September 1st to achieve the world championships qualifying standard of 18-8.75 (5.71m), according to a release from British Athletics. We earlier wrote the IAAF's deadline of September 6th as the deadline instead of the British federation's deadline.

Complete results of the British Athletics Championships are available here.

In Madrid, Spain, Marta Pen Freitas of the Brooks Beasts finished 15th in the women’s 1500m at the Meeting Madrid Sunday.

Pen Freitas, the 2016 Portuguese Olympian, ran 4:20.91, as American Shannon Osika won in 4:12.11.

Complete results of the Meeting Madrid are available here.

NOTE: British Athletics and the Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA Atletismo) contributed to this report.