Hard fought victory caps unbeaten season
Hoey wins gutty duel against Crestan in 800 meters in World Indoor Champs
Josh Hoey’s streak of personal bests came to a close in the final of the men’s 800 meters in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on Sunday. But the 25-year-old American won his first global title when he held off the charge of Belgian Eliott Crestan to cap an undefeated season.
After running the No. 2 and 4 times in indoor history in the 800 earlier this year, Hoey was a heavy favorite entering the World championships. But Crestan pushed him to the limit on Sunday before the American won a hard-fought duel for the gold medal with a time of 1:44.77 that left him just in front of Crestan at 1:44.81.
Elvin Canales of Spain finished third in 1:45.03, followed by European champion Samuel Chapple of the Netherlands in fourth place in 1:45.55, and American Brandon Miller in fifth in 1:46.44.
“It’s really nice to be able to give back to the people who have been supporting me,” Hoey said in an interview posted on flotrack.org when he was asked about what his win meant to him. “My family, my coach has been calling me between every round and giving me encouragement. It’s really nice to be able to show them that it was for something, so we can have a good launching point for outdoors.”
After Hoey had run 1:43.90 in the Millrose Games on Feb. 8 and 1:43.24 in the USA Track & Field Indoor Championships 15 days later, there had been some online chatter about him taking a shot at the world record of 1:42.67 set by Wilson Kipketer of Denmark in 1997 when he ran in Nanjing.
But that kind of talk might have been overly optimistic when one considered the fact that Hoey had to run in a qualifying heat on Friday and in a semifinal on Saturday prior to the final on Sunday.
Nonetheless, he was in the lead when he came through the first lap in 24.80 seconds and he was close behind Miller when his teammate led the field through 400 meters in 50.63.
Hoey had retaken the lead by 500 meters and he and Miller were running 1-2 when Hoey went through three laps in 1:17.38. But Crestan was a close third at that point and he had moved into second behind Hoey with 100 meters left in the race.
The gap between them was basically two tenths of a second at that point, and though Crestan gradually reduced the deficit between them as they raced down the home straightaway, he was unable to catch Hoey.
“That was a tough one,” Hoey said before he admitted that he “kind of muscled it out” during the latter stages of the race.
He added that it “was just a fight for the last 200.”
With his victory, Hoey concluded the indoor season with six victories in six finals, with the first five wins coming in races in which he set two personal bests in the 800 and one each in the mile at 3:52.61, the 1,000 meters at 2:14.48, and the 1,500 at 3:33.66.
Like his 1:43.24 clocking in the 800, Hoey’s 2:14.48 effort in the 1,000 was the second fastest ever run indoors.
In addition to the 800, meters, medals were also awarded in the 1,500, heptathlon, long jump, shot put, and 4 x 400 relay on the men’s side of the final day of the three-day meet.
While Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway won the 1,500 after topping the field in the 3,000 on Saturday, compatriot Sander Skotheim placed first in the heptathlon to complete a triple of sorts, and Mattia Furlani of Italy and Tom Walsh of New Zealand were victorious in the long jump and shot put, respectively.
The U.S. men also won the 4 x 400 relay.
Ingebrigtsen had opened his indoor season by setting world records of 3:29.63 in the 1,500 meters and 3:45.14 in the mile in the same race in a meet in Lievin, France, on Feb. 13, before winning the 1,500 and 3,000 in the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, in the second week in March.
He then won the 3,000 in 7:46.09 in Nanjing on Saturday before winning the 1,500 in 3:38.79 on Sunday.
While the Norwegian had overtaken Olympic 10,000 silver medalist Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia in the home straightaway to win the 3,000, he was in the lead with 400 meters remaining in the 1,500 and no one was able to overtake him after that.
Neil Gourley of Great Britain finished second in 3:39.07 followed by Sam Houser of the U.S. in 3:39.17, Isaac Nader of Portugal in 3:39.58, and Samuel Philstrom of Sweden in 3:39.67.
Ingebrigtsen covered the final 200 meters of the race in 26.84 seconds and the last 400 in 54.16 while winning his first World Athletics title in the 1,500, as he had finished second in the event in both the indoor and outdoor championships in 2022 and in the outdoor meet in 2023.
His victory also made him the second man to win the 3,000 and 1,500 in the same World indoor championships.
Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia had been the first to achieve that double when he won the 3,000 in 7:53.57 and the 1,500 in 3:33.77 in the 1999 global indoor meet in Maebashi, Japan, in 1999.
“Of course this is something special,” Ingebrigtsen said in a World Athletics post. “It's very difficult to compare yourself against history and what others are doing. I'm only focusing on myself. I think I can do more, so I'll try to maximise that and grab the opportunity given to me. The goal is to participate as much as I can. It's definitely important to use the opportunities and not take anything for granted.”
Skotheim won the heptathlon with a total of 6,475 points to finish 38 points ahead of second-place Johannes Erm of Estonia, who set a national record with his score of 6,437.
Till Steinforth of Germany placed third with 6,275 points, followed by Heath Baldwin of the U.S. with 6,188.
Skotheim’s victory completed an impressive 51-day stretch during which he totaled the Nos. 5, 10, and 13-ranked scores in history in the seven-event heptathlon.
He had first totaled 6,484 points in winning a meet in Tallinn, Estonia, on Feb. 2 and he had followed that with a European record of 6,558 to win the European title on March 8.
He was in first place with 3,649 points after the first four events of the heptathlon in Nanjing on Saturday and stayed in the lead throughout the competition on Sunday, although Erm made up points on him in every event.
While Skotheim produced marks of 7.93 seconds in the 60-meter high hurdles, 5.00 (16-4¾) in the pole vault, and 2:36.08 in the 1,000, Erm ran 7.91 in the high hurdles, cleared 5.30 in (17-4½) in the pole vault, and timed 2:34.92 in the 1,000.
Skotheim’s recent successes came after he had finished 18th in the decathlon in the Olympic Games in Paris last summer after he was unable to clear his opening height of 4.50 (14-9) in the pole vault.
“It's been a very good month,” Skotheim said in a World Athletics post. “I’ve been very motivated in the winter to get the work in after what happened in Paris, so I feel like the indoor season has been a success. Now moving to outdoors, I want to show that I'm back in the decathlon as well. I definitely feel the fatigue of the body after a long indoor season, so I'm ready for some rest now.”
The 20-year-old Furlani won an ultra-tight long jump competition as his best of 8.30 (27-2¾) left him a centimeter ahead of silver medalist Wayne Pinnock of Jamaica, who leaped 8.29 (27-2½), and two centimeters in front of bronze medalist Liam Adcock of Australia, who jumped 8.28 (27-2) twice.
They were followed by Shunsuke Izumiya of Japan in fourth place at 8.21 (26-11¼) and two-time defending champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece in fifth at 8.14 (26-8½). Tentoglou has also won the last two Olympic titles.
Furlani, who had placed second in the last year’s World indoor meet in Glasgow, Scotland, because Tentoglou had a better No. 2 mark than him, fouled on his first jump on Sunday before hitting his winning mark of 8.30 (27-2¾) in the second round.
He then fouled on his third attempt before leaping 8.28 (27-2) in the fourth round, fouling on his fifth, and jumping 8.21 (26-11¼) in the sixth.
Pinnock hit his best of 8.29 (27-2½) in the fourth round after leaping 8.28 (27-2) in the second.
Adcock jumped 8.28 (27-2) on his first two attempts.
“I'm so happy because this isn't a European medal, but it's a world medal,” Furlani said in a World Athletics post. “For me, it's amazing. Since last year, I've been trying to get this gold medal. Now I have it in my hands, it's a dream. Winning it is a big honour. Now I’ll allow my body to recover and then return to training to prepare for Tokyo. That's the big goal of the year.”
The 33-year-old Walsh won his third global indoor title in the shot put, and his first since 2018, with a season best of 21.65 (71-½).
He was followed by the U.S. duo of Roger Steen (21.62/70-11¼) and Adrian Piperi (21.48/70-5¾), Italian Leonardo Fabbri at 21.36 (70-1), and Nigerian Chukwuebuka Enekwechi at 21.25 (69-8¾).
Walsh hit his winning mark in the first round and his second-best put of 21.48 (70-5 ¾) in the sixth.
Steen moved from sixth place to second on his final put as his 21.62 (70-11¼) effort topped his previous best of 20.88 (68-6) in the third round.
In addition to his victories in the World indoor championships in 2016, ’18 and this year, Walsh also placed second in last year’s meet, as well as third in 2014 and ’22.
The U.S. was expected to romp to a win in the men’s 4 x 400 relay after Christopher Bailey, Brian Faust, and Jacory Patterson swept the medals in the 400 on Saturday, but the American squad was not as dominant as one might have expected as its winning time of 3:03.13 left it less than two seconds in front of second-place Jamaica at 3:05.05.
Hungary finished third in 3:06.03, followed by China in 3:06.90, and Sri Lanka in 3:10.58 in an event in which only five teams entered the meet.
Elija Godwin gave the Americans a small lead after he ran 46.84 on his first leg and Faust followed with a 45.94 split on his carry before Patterson clocked 45.51 on his.
The U.S. lead was just under a second at that point in the race, but Bailey had basically doubled it after running 44.84 on his anchor leg.
The U.S. won a meet-high 16 medals, including six gold medals, during the three-day competition. Australia had the second most medals with seven, followed by Ethiopia with five.
You can click here for complete results from the meet.