Seattle resident Josh Kerr of the Brooks Beasts wins bronze in men's 1500m for Great Britain...

TOKYO--In perhaps one of the greatest individual men's track races at these Olympics, Josh Kerr (photo courtesy British Athletics) of the Seattle based Brooks Beasts earned a bronze medal in the men's 1500 meter run on the final night of track and field competition at the Olympic Stadium.

Kerr, the native of Edinburgh, Scotland, who has trained and lived in Seattle under Brooks Beasts coach Danny Mackey for the last several years after graduating from the University of New Mexico, ran a personal best 3:29.05, as Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen won in an Olympic record 3:28.32, with defending world champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya second in 3:29.01, just 4/100ths ahead of Kerr.

With many in the field remembering how slow the 2016 Olympic final was, Ingebrigtsen made sure that the race was going to be honest, running the first 300 in 42 seconds, and taking the field through 400 in 56.2, while Kerr was in about tenth at 57.3.

Cheruiyot had a small lead at 800m, leading at 1:51.8, with Ingebrigtsen in second at 1:52.0, and Kerr lurking in seventh a second behind.

As the field strung out, Kerr worked his way to sixth at the 1000 meter mark, crossing in 2:21.5, but still almost two seconds behind Cheruiyot and Ingebrigtsen.

Kerr made his charge over the last lap, closing the gap with 200 meters to go, finding himself within striking distance of a podium spot, as Kenya's Abel Kipsang stood in the way in third.

Kerr was still fourth as they headed down the homestretch, caught Kipsang, and ran out of real estate as Cheruiyot hung on for second, and Ingebrigtsen took the win.

Kerr’s time of 3:29.05 knocked a mammoth 2.5 seconds off his personal best, was just 0.24s outside Mo Farah’s British record time and was the second-fastest metric mile run by a British man in history.

His medal is the first Olympic medal won by a member of the Brooks Beasts since the team was founded.

In the mixed zone afterwards, Kerr told reporters, “I’m blown away. This has been a hard Championships for me, the first run wasn’t great, it was one of those days and you can have those. Sadly, mine was the first round of the Olympics."

In speaking of his first round race on Tuesday, where he got out of the heat only as a time qualifier, he said, "How bad was that first round? That really gives you a kick up the ass. I snuck through and made sure I didn't take any step out there for granted. Maybe it was a good thing."

“I had to go back, think about it, recalibrate and come back to these next rounds fighting for every single step. I feel like you saw that today, you saw that in the semi-final and I’m really happy with that performance."

“I have this weird confidence in myself. Some may call it cockiness, some may call it general confidence."

“When you put the effort in and you’re surrounded by a team like I am, you can’t not feel confidence every step of the way.”

Team USA swept both the men's and women's 4 x 400 relays, winning the men's title in 2:55.70 with Michael Cherry, Michael Norman, Bryce Deadmon & Rai Benjamin. The Netherlands finished second in 2:57.18, followed by Botswana in 2:57.27.

Allyson Felix earned her 11th Olympic medal as the USA squad of Sydney McLaughlin, Felix, Dalilah Muhammad & Athing Mu won in 3:16.85, followed by Poland's 3:20.53, and Jamaica's 3:21.24.

While she didn't get the triple Olympic gold that she sought before the meet, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands won her second Olympic title of the meet, taking the 10000 title in 29:55.32, followed by Kalkidan Gezahegne of Bahrain in 29:56.18, and Letesenbet Gidey of Ethiopia in third in 30:01.72.

India's Neeraj Chopra won India's first track & field Olympic gold medal in the men's javelin, rifling the spear 287-4 (87.58m). Jakub Vadlejek (284-4/86.67m) and Vitezslav Vesely (280-4/85.44m) of the Czech Republic were second and third.

Mariya Lasitskene of the Russian OC won the high jump at 6-8.25 (2.04m) with Australia's Nicola McDermott, who cleared 6-7.5 (2.02m), followed by Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh at 6-6.75 (2.00m).

The Olympic track and field competition officially concludes Sunday morning at 7 am Japan time/3 pm Saturday afternoon Pacific time, with the men's marathon in Sapporo, featuring Bellingham's Jake Riley, the US Olympic Trials second place finisher.

Results and start lists are available through the home page of the World Athletics Tokyo Olympics microsite.

NOTE: The Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee, British Athletics, USA Track & Field, & World Athletics contributed to this report.

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