In July 1999 at Rome's Stadio Olimpico, Moroccan legend Hicham El Guerrouj ran the 1 mile (about 1.609 km) course, crossing the line in 3:43.13 — that world recordhas endured for the following 27 years, surviving four full Olympic cycles,and has outlasted three technological evolutions in modern athletics — carbon-plate shoes, drafting/paceline formations, and even Wavelight (the pacing green light).However, the purpose of records is to be broken.Britain's World Championship and World Indoor Championship double champion Josh Kerr will on July 18 this year at theLondon leg of the World Athletics Diamond Leaguelaunch a final assault on what is widely regarded as the most difficult outdoor world record in athletics history.Kerr's team has named it "Project 222"——the target is to run exactly 222 seconds, an unprecedented 3:42.00.Breaking down this crazy plan, we find that a mile equals four complete standard track laps plus an extra 9.344 meters. To cover that distance in 3:42 means Cole would need to hold an average of 55.5 seconds per lap (400m).Jakob Ingebrigtsen ran the first lap of the 1500m final at the 2024 Paris Olympics in 54 seconds, and Jakob described that opening lap as "too aggressive" — a tactic that left him mercilessly overtaken in the final 100m by Hocker, Cole and Yared Nuguse.Compared with Jakob, Cole's current 1500m PB is 3:27.79 — about one second slower. His one-mile PB is the 3:45.34 he set at the 2024 Eugene Diamond League, when he broke a 39-year-old British national record. But the gap from 3:45.34 to 3:42.00 — more than three seconds — in the world of elite middle-distance running is like a chasm. It's roughly equivalent to a full marathon time dropping from 2:08 to 2:01.Cole understands the difficulty involved, but he's not going in unprepared. According to multiple sources within the athletics community and public reports, for this race of just over three minutes, Cole has shifted the focus of his entire 2026 season toward it. In this "big-event gap year" without the Olympics or outdoor World Championships, he will undergo targeted conditioning.Even more notable is the large team behind him. This is a multi-million-dollar project driven by professional teams and top tech companies. Public reports show Cole is backed by a professional support team of up to 16 people.The R&D lab of his sponsor Brooks is custom-building a World Athletics-compliant carbon-plated spike shoe for him. The shoe will be entirely based on Cole's precise foot strike loading points and force-application habits, with midsole foam tuning and carbon plate stiffness adapted accordingly.If we turn the clock back half a year—to September 17, 2025, at Tokyo's New National Stadium, the World Athletics Championships men's 1500m final. At that time, Cole, competing as the defending champion, was involved in a collision with 600 meters to go as the pack began to surge and jostle for position, and he strained his right leg in a very awkward overextension.Cole limped on a badly injured right leg,crossing the finish line last in 4:11.23. Though he lost the race, he earned a standing ovation from the crowd.The post-race diagnosis was a grade 2 tear of the muscles in his right calf. For a middle- and long-distance runner, this was undoubtedly a huge blow.During the long and painful recovery, Cole left this message on social media."Sport owes you nothing; you must go out and take back the honor that belongs to you."Under the attentive care of his physiotherapist mother and the scientific intervention of his coaching team,after suffering an injury in September last year, by November Cole and his team began planning "Project 222", hemiraculously completed his rehabilitation in just a few months.This March, Cole staged one of the greatest comebacks in recent athletics history at the 2026 World Indoor Championships.In the penultimate lap of the men's 3000m final, he used unrivaled tactical savvy and a devastating finishing kick to power past American star Hocker,claiming the gold in 7:35.56. He even replicated the celebration Hocker used when he beat him at Millrose earlier this year—this time it was the real good night.On the road to challenging the one-mile world record, Cole is not alone. Not only does he have the whole of British athletics fans behind him (Britain has produced six one-mile world record holders, including Roger Bannister and Sebastian Coe, and Cole is eager to "bring that honor back home"), but his ultimate rival — Norwegian prodigy Jacob Ingebrigtsen — is also eyeing that throne.By 1-mile PB standards,Jakob Ingebrigtsen isthe closest thing in modern athletics to Hicham El Guerrouj. At the 2023 Eugene Diamond League, it was Jakob who produced the astonishing 3:43.73, just 0.6 seconds off the world record. Jakob currently holds the world records for the 2000m, 3000m and two miles.Even more dramatic, after a low point in 2025 plagued by Achilles issues and a disappointing finish at the World Championships in Tokyo, the 25-year-old Norwegian recently told Norwegian media something that sent shockwaves through the athletics world: he plans to mount an all-out assault in 2026 on the world records for the 1500m, the mile and the 5000m."I want to take the world records in those three events. I've already laid the groundwork, and the 2026 season will be my incredible comeback year." Jakob's declaration is, without doubt, the most direct challenge to Cole's "Project 222."Their duels have always been spectacular — from Josh Kerr's "deadly comeback" at the 2023 Budapest World Championships, to the "mile of the century" showdown at the 2024 Eugene Diamond League where Kerr narrowly bested Jacob Kiplimo (3:45.34 to 3:45.60). Every meeting between the two has felt like Mars colliding with Earth. Now their rivalry has escalated into a duel across the world record.The 2026 international athletics calendar has no Olympics and no World Championships. What might have been a subdued season has been driven to unprecedented heights by Josh Kerr's "Project 222" and Jacob Kiplimo's triple-crown ambitions.On July 18 at the London Bowl, 60,000 spectators will witness Kerr's bid to smash the 27-year-old world record.Does he have a chance to pull off that legendary 222-second feat? Will Jacob watch the live stream?Text:trail running / Editor:David
Images：Trail Running Big Bang & web / Visuals：MAX
