JOSH KERR is not, by his own admission, an indoor specialist.

But in Olympic year, everything is done as a means to an end and that’s why the 22-year-old will be making his second indoor appearance of the year this weekend.

Kerr raced at the prestigious Muller Indoor Grand Prix at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow last Saturday and today, he will return to the same venue for the British Indoor Championships.

The Edinburgh native may be a 1500m specialist but both last weekend and this weekend, he has been testing himself over 800m.

A fourth-place finish in 1 minute 47.40 seconds last week, behind world indoor champion Adam Kszczot, Cornelius Tuwei and his compatriot Guy Learmonth was a solid start to the year but ever the perfectionist, Kerr was not altogether happy with his run.

“It wasn’t quite what I wanted but I’m always too greedy,” he said.

“It was definitely a start though. A few of those cobwebs have been blown away now and so it’s nice to be going back to run at the Emirates again this weekend and hopefully right a couple of wrongs from the race.

Kerr will be up against Learmonth again this weekend for the British title but already he is looking towards the outdoor season.

The Olympics are now only five months away but despite Kerr being unquestionably a world-class athlete, he cannot bank on being on the plane to Tokyo this summer.

Such is the strength of 1500m running in the UK at the moment, even someone of Kerr’s calibre will have to be at his very best to make the GB team, which is something he is well aware of.

However, he knows that despite the sizeable challenge of making the GB team when up against the likes of fellow Scots Jake Wightman, Neil Gourley and Chris O’Hare, he must maintain the self-belief that he has what it takes to make it to his first Olympic Games.

“It’s all about the trials,” he said.

“You can’t look past that with the depth we have in the 1500m. Three of us will go to Tokyo and I can’t think that I won’t go to the Olympics.

“I’m fully confident that I can make the Olympic team so I have thought past the trials because I do think it’s a massive possibility for me to be in Tokyo.

“However, I’m not complacent and thinking there’s no way I could miss out, there’s definitely a chance where if I don’t do it on the day (of the trials), the selectors don’t select me. So I need to make sure I perform on the day.

So at the moment, the trials are the most important for now and then when we get past that, we can start focusing fully on Tokyo.

It’s just about taking it step-by-step at the moment – staying injury-free, getting some PBs and getting my racing legs back.”

Following this weekend, the Scot will head back to New Mexico in America, where he is based, to prepare for the outdoor season.

And irrespective of how this weekend goes, Kerr will head into the summer full of confidence as a result of his performance at the World Championships in Doha last October.

He finished in sixth place in the 1500m final, which was by far the best major championship performance of his career so far.

It was, admits Kerr, a result that gave him a significant confidence boost and one that he hopes to use as a springboard going forward.

“I was really happy with it. It was a weird situation having a ten-month season but it showed that I was able to keep my training going really well and I had very little time off through illness or injury so that was good. I learnt a lot about my body and I learnt a lot about how to conduct myself in those kind of situations in a major championship.

“It was definitely a major step forward in my career and showed me that I have the ability to medal at major championship.

“That was a dream before but now it’s becoming a reality. So I can now go into major championships knowing that I’ve been there before and that if I’d gone a second faster in Doha, I’d have been standing on the podium in one of the faster world championship 1500m in history.

“So it’s definitely very positive and it was very encouraging.

“I’ve shown at major championships that I can perform under pressure so I’m feeling confident and I’m looking forward to keeping moving my career in the right direction.!

Other Scots in the hunt for medals this weekend are, amongst others, Alisha Rees in the 60m, Nikki Manson and David Smith in the high jump, Jax Thoirs in the pole vault and Sarah Warnock in the long jump.