Josh Kerr successfully retained his indoor mile crown at the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas on Saturday (March 10).

After becoming the first man since 2008 to win both the NCAA mile indoor win and outdoor 1500m, Kerr went to the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships as the strong favourite and lived up to the billing.

The 20-year-old Scottish athlete had advanced comfortably from the earlier round on Friday and led the final from the off. He temporarily the relinquished the lead position halfway through before taking the front of the race again with three laps to go. With 400m left, Virginia Tech’s Vincent Ciattei and Oregon’s Sam Prakel still had a chance of upsetting the favourite.

However, as the bell rang the University of New Mexico student upped the ante and pulled away with a 26.71 final 200m to retain his NCAA indoor crown in 3:57.02.

Ciattei took second in 3:58.36 with Prakel third in 3:58.59.

Kerr, who competed for Great Britain at the World Championships in London last year, is the first male athlete to win back-to-back NCAA mile crowns since Lee Emanuel in 2010.

In February Kerr competed at the prestigious NYRR Wanamaker Mile running big personal best in 3:54.72 to runner-up to fellow Scot Chris O’Hare.

Elsewhere, in the men’s 4x400m, three teams finished under Poland’s recent 3:01.77 world indoor record set at World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.

The University of Southern California quartet clocked 3:00.77 with Texas A&M running 3:01.39 followed by Florida in 3:01.43.

Earlier in the evening, Michael Norman, who anchored the USC team in the 4x400m relay, also broke the 400m world indoor record clocking 44.52 to improve on Kerron Clement’s 44.57 best set in 2005.