Week in Review: A victory to savor
Bryant surprises many with long jump win in World Indoor Champs
A desire to savor the experience of competing in her first global title meet paid big dividends for Claire Bryant of the U.S. in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China, on Sunday.
The 23-year-old graduate of the University of Florida entered the women’s long jump as the No. 6-ranked entrant in the 13-competitor field. But she led the competition from her first jump onward while on her way to posting a personal best of 6.96 meters (22 feet 10 inches).
She was followed by silver medalist Annik Kalin of Switzerland at 6.83 (22-5), bronze medalist Fatima Diame of Spain at 6.72 (22-¾), and fourth-place Plamena Mikova of Bulgaria at 6.63 (21-9).
“My premium goal was just to live out, the experience, the blessing, that making it to a World championships is,” she said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “I thought about how blessed I was, and what an honor it is to be able to wear Team USA and rep America. And all I thought about was, ‘I have an opportunity to live out my dreams, to accomplish my goals. So I might as well take it, because not everyone gets that.’ ”
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The Houston native added that while she is always intent on doing well and competing at a high level in every meet she enters, her main goal for the World championships was to “experience everything that was available to me, with all of the fun people on Team USA and on the other teams in China. How cool is that? Not many people have opportunities to do that. Just experiencing everything was important to me.”
After Byrant’s opening jump of 6.76 (22-2¼) gave her a four-centimeter lead over second-place Diame after the first round, she added a solid 6.72 (22-¾) effort on her second attempt. Then came a 6.90 (22-7¾) third jump that served to increase the pressure on the other competitors, as well as add two centimeters to Bryant’s personal best of 6.88 (22-7) that she had set in finishing third in the NCAA indoor championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2023.
“Definitely,” Bryant said when she was asked if she thought she had a chance at winning after her 6.90 leap. “I think the 6.90 gave me confidence, and then, this might sound odd, but the foul on my fourth jump was very encouraging because I had moved my start back a whole foot and I still fouled… That showed me that my speed was still there, that I had more in the tank, and there was more aggression for me.
“The fourth jump can be a low-number jump, so when I fouled, it gave me the confidence to do the exact same thing and run through the board on my next jump. And I think that’s where the 6.96 came from. After that I was like, ‘I think I’ve got this.” But you never know. Things can happen. It was just so fun.”
TFI posted daily reports about the World Athletics Indoor Championships last weekend. The Day One report can be found here, followed by the men’s reports from Day Two and Day Three, and the women’s reports from Day Two and Day Three.
As the final jumper in the competition, Bryant knew the gold medal was hers when she prepared for her sixth attempt. But she had her mind set on a seven-meter (22-11¾) effort as she sprinted down the runway. And though she fouled on that jump, she was ecstatic to have won a World title after having posted three second-place finishes, one third, one fifth, two sixths, and a seventh in her eight NCAA championship appearances for Florida.
Bryant appeared to be extremely loose and relaxed on Sunday, as she smiled a lot and interacted with photographers during the competition. However, she said her exterior did not completely reflect her inner emotions.
“I’ve noticed a trend that when I compete well, I’m not chill during a competition,” she said. “I’m very much hyped up, and excited and having a good time. But I’m uninhibited by worry and not burdened with doubt. I think what you observed… what other people observed, was just me jumping with freedom, freedom from fear, freedom from self doubt, freedom from worrying about results. I was just out there competing because I want to be there. Because it’s so awesome.”
Bryant added that she told herself more than once during the competition that “this is awesome and you might as well enjoy it while you’re out there. Because we work so hard, really year around, for these moments. So you have to almost force yourself, at times, to take in these moments and relish them, because they don’t happen that often.”
While the World championships marked the end of the indoor season, Bryant will not be taking much time off to catch her breath, or rest on her laurels. She’ll open her outdoor campaign in the Botswana Golden Grand Prix that will be held in the Botswanan capital of Gaborone on April 12.
Her schedule after that is still being compiled as her victory in Nanjing, as well as her winning jump of nearly seven meters, has given her the opportunity to compete in some meets whose promoters were not previously clamoring for her to take part in their events.
“I definitely think it’s changed my life,” Bryant said of winning a World title. “But I try to keep my perspective about these opportunities the Lord has given me, and not to take them for granted, or for me to believe that this was all just me. This medal is the fruition of so many people’s work, like my coaches, my parents, myself, and my teammates. This is a win across the board for all of us.”
Winning the big one: Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas had placed second once and third twice in her first three finals of the season in women’s 60-meter hurdles heading into the World indoor championships. But she left Nanjing with her second consecutive title after running 7.72 seconds to win an incredibly tight race on Sunday in which European champion Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland placed second in 7.73 and third-place Ackera Nugent of Jamaica, fourth-place Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland, and fifth-place Grace Stark of the U.S. each ran 7.74.
In addition, Nadine Visser of the Netherlands finished sixth in 7.76 in a race in which Skrzyszowska, Stark, and Visser ran the fastest-ever times for their respective places.
“It was a big deal for me to come here and show up, defend my title,” Charlton said in a World Athletics post. “It was a big goal for me. It wasn't looking great, but I trusted the people around me and I was able to pull it off.
“It's definitely super hard to defend a title at an event like this. The women always show up. To come away with a win against these ladies, it's really cool.”
The 29-year-old Charlton had lowered the world record to 7.65 in last year’s World championships in Glasgow, Scotland, but she had entered that race with clockings of 7.67, 7.68, and 7.72 to her credit.
She had a season best of 7.83 when she settled in the starting blocks for her first-round heat on Sunday morning.
Athough she won that race in 7.94 before running 7.82 to place second in one of three semifinals, Stark, Kambundji, and Skrzyszowska had run 7.72, 7.76, and 7.79, respectively, in their semifinals.
However, Charlton got off to one of her typically quick starts in the final before holding on for the victory.
Kambundji, who had set a European record of 7.67 in winning the continental title 16 days earlier, came the closest to catching Charlton, but the Bahamian had held on by a minute margin when the top six women dipped across the finish line in unison.
Repeat winner: The women’s high jump in Nanjing had been billed as a showdown between defending champion Nicola Olyslagers of Australia and Olympic champion and world record-holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh of Ukraine. But it ended up being an 1-2 finish for Australia as Olyslagers and 2022 World outdoor champion Eleanor Patterson each cleared 1.97 (6-5½) on their first attempts in the final on Sunday, with the former winning the gold medal because she had fewer total misses during the competition than her teammate.
Mahuchikh and Angelina Topic of Serbia each cleared 1.95 (6-4¾), but Mahuchikh finished third because she cleared that height on her first attempt and Topic made it on her second try.
In an unusual scenario, the 28-year-old Olyslagers’ victory came in her first meet of the season.
“This is the first time I’ve come from a gold medal position to try and defend something outside of Australia,” she said in a World Athletics post. “I knew that if I wanted to jump as high as I wanted, to be as competitive as I wanted, I needed to do things outside of my normal comfort zone. I needed to do something new, like start a world championships as my first competition of the season.
“I was really inspired by Yaroslava's world record attempts last year, and how she changed her run-up. So, I was jumping with a new run-up today. I want to jump as high as Yaroslava – if I want to be competitive, I need to be trying and changing things up.”
Mahuckikh had raised the world record to 2.10 (6-10¾) in the Meeting de Paris Diamond League meet last July, but she looked off from the start on Sunday. Although she cleared 1.89 (6-2¼) and 1.95 (6-4¾) on her first attempts, she did not scream over those lower heights as she often does. She then missed her first try at 1.97 (6-5½) before passing to 1.99 (6-6¼) and missing her two allotted jumps at that bar.
While Mahuchikh did medal for the seventh consecutive time in a global title meet, her top height of 1.95 (6-4¾) was her lowest during that streak.
Repeat winner: Sarah Mitton of Canada won her second consecutive title in the women’s shot put in Nanjing last Friday while competing in her first global title meet since she finished a disappointing 12th in the Olympic Games.
The 28-year-old Mitton dominated a competition that featured the top three competitors in the world this year as her best of 20.48 (67-2¼) gave her a substantial margin of victory over silver medalist Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands, who had a top mark of 20.07 (65-10¼). Chase Jackson of the U.S. had a best of 20.06 (65-9¾) while winning her second consecutive bronze medal in the World indoor championships after winning a silver medal in the 2022 meet in Belgrade, Serbia.
Mitton unleashed her 20.48 effort in the sixth round after she had previously hit 20.36 (66-9¾) in the second round and 20.15 (66-1½) in the fifth.
Schilder had won the European title with a yearly world-leading mark of 20.69 (67-10¾), but she struggled with her consistency in the final in Nanjing. She fouled on two of her six efforts and her second-best mark was 19.67 (64-6½).
“I'm really happy with how it turned out today,” Mitton said in a World Athletics post. “There’s really nothing I can do to stop them from throwing far. And honestly, today was really fun, because everybody threw well. We had three girls over 20 metres, multiple 20-metre throws. So that makes it better – when you win when everyone's on top of their game.”
Two for three: For the second time in three years, Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland turned the tables on the favorite in the winning the women’s 60-meter dash in the World indoor championships last Saturday.
After not looking particularly sharp in her qualifying heat and semifinal earlier in the day, the 32-year-old Kambundji got off to a good start in the final and started to make up ground on favorite Zaynab Dosso of Italy at the midway point of the race before overtaking her in the last five meters of the contest.
Kambundji’s time of 7.04 left her two hundredths of a second in front of Dosso (7.06), who just held off Patrizia van der Weken of Luxembourg (7.07) for the silver medal.
Although Dosso had edged Kambundji, 7.01 to 7.02, in winning the European title 13 days earlier, she looked like the class of the field entering the final as she had posted the fastest times in the heats and semifinals with clockings of 7.09 and 7.07, respectively.
Kambundji had placed first in her heat in 7.20 when a top-three finish automatically advanced sprinters to the semifinals. But she finished second in a semifinal in which she, first-place van der Weken and third-place Zoe Hobbs of New Zealand all ran 7.12.
“I'm really happy, really relieved,” Kambundji said in a World Athletics post. “This was a lot like the Europeans. Zaynab was also coming from that, and I knew she was going to be fast.
“This means a lot, for this title to come at this stage of my career. I see it with other sprinters, with the older sprinters – they are also motivating me a lot to see that they're still running PBs, and running really fast at 35, 36 years old. It shows me that my best time can still be ahead of me.”
Dosso, whose 7.01 clocking in the European championships was the fastest in the world this year, said in the World Athletics post that she was disappointed with her start in the final. Nonetheless, she was out ahead of Kambundji, but was unable to hold her off in the final stages of the race.
When Kambundji won her first global title in 2022 in Belgrade, Serbia, her semifinal time of 7.08 had left her back of Ewa Swoboda of Poland and Mikiah Brisco of the U.S., who each ran 7.03, and Marybeth Sant-Price of the U.S., who clocked 7.05.
However, she won the final in a personal best of 6.96 while running out of lane eight. Briscoe finished second in 6.99, with Sant-Price, Swoboda, and Jamaicans Briana Williams and Shericka Jackson each running 7.04 while finishing in third through sixth place.
Adding to their totals: Ethiopians Gudaf Tsegay and Freweyni Hailu won the women’s 1,500 and 3,000 meters, respectively, in the World indoor championships after having won gold and silver medals in the previous two global undercover title meets.
The 27-year-old Tsegay won the 1,500 in 3:54.86 on Sunday after previously wining that event in the 2022 championships in Belgrade, Serbia, and finishing second in the 3,000 in last year’s meet in Glasgow, Scotland.
The 24-year-old Hailu placed first in the 3,000 in 8:37.21 last Saturday after winning the 1,500 in last year’s meet and placing second in the 800 in 2022.
Tsegay’s victory came in her first global title meet since she had severely underperformed in the Olympic Games when she had placed ninth in the 5,000, sixth in the 10,000, and 12th in the 1,500, in that order.
However, she had run the second-fastest short track time in history with her 3:53.92 clocking in Lievin, France, last month and she wasn’t far off that mark on Sunday as her winning time of 3:54.68 was a meet record and left her four-plus seconds ahead of compatriot Diribe Welteji, who finished second in 3:59.30.
Tsegay, who has now run the four fastest times ever indoors, was nearly a second ahead of second-place Welteji when she went through 400 meters in 60.50 seconds and that gap continued to expand as she passed 800 meters in 2:03.44 and 1,200 in 3:07.99.
“It was not an easy race,” Tsegay said in a World Athletics post. “This was a fast time, so I'm very happy about that.
“Athletes go through ups and downs, injuries, challenges – it's no problem. I prefer the indoors. For outdoors, I'll do the 800m or 10,000m, but indoors I like the 1500m.”
Hailu’s victory in the 3,000 on Saturday came after the early pace had been mild as Olympic 1,500 silver medalist Jessica Hull of Australia led the field through the first kilometer in 2:53.80 and Nozomi Tanaka of Japan was in the lead when she reached two kilometers in 5:54.49.
The lead pack still consisted of nine women with three laps left in the race, but things had stretched out a lap later as Hull was leading Hailu, and American Shelby Houlihan was the closest runner still giving chase.
It was a two-runner battle for first place as Hailu began the bell lap ahead of Hull. But the Ethiopian began to pull away from the Australian down the backstretch and around the curve as she crossed the finish line in 8:37.21.
Houlihan nipped Hull for the silver medal just before the finish line as she ran 8:38.26 to Hull’s 8:38.28.
“To win this event, I prepared myself strongly, and I feel very happy that I won the race,” Hailu said in a World Athletics post. “I was sick at home just before coming to Nanjing, so I stayed at the back to conserve myself before making my push. I'm healthy now, and I came here to win.
“Last year I won the 1500m, now I've won the 3000m, and I'm so happy about that. I try my best, and God helped me with the rest. I don't know how I will celebrate – my happiness is beyond me.”
Come-from-behind victory: Marie-Julie Bonnin of France won the pole vault in Nanjing last Saturday at a national-record height of 4.75 (15-7) after finding herself in sixth place earlier in the competition.
Tina Sutej of Slovenia, Angelica Moser of Switzerland, and defending champion Molly Caudery of Great Britain all cleared 4.70 (15-5). But Caudery finished fourth because she needed two tries to make that height.
Sutej and European champion Moser each made it on their first attempts, but Sutej won the silver medal because she had fewer total misses during the competition than Moser.
Bonnin cleared her opening height of 4.45 (14-7¼), but she dropped to sixth place after needing three tries to get over 4.60 (15-1). However, she moved into a tie for second with Moser — behind Sutej — when they both made 4.70 (15-5) on their first attempts.
After Caudery fell to fourth place because she needed two attempts to clear 4.70, there was a delay of 30 minutes or perhaps longer as some technical work needed to be performed on one of the standards.
Once the competition resumed, all four vaulters missed their first attempts at 4.75 (15-7). But Bonnin cleared that height on her second try and Sutej, Moser, and Caudery each missed their remaining jumps.
Caudery looked to have been high enough to clear 4.75 on her second attempt, but she appeared to have dislodged the bar when she started to celebrate her apparent clearance before she had made the height completely.
“I cannot believe it. It's like a dream,” Bonnin said in a World Athletics post. “I feel like we were there for a medal, but not the gold. There were many good girls here who I expected to be in great shape.
“We weren't sure that we were going to jump here two months ago. We didn't expect it to go this well, but we tried, and I'm so proud that we made the right choice. The medal (at the European Indoor Championships) was so relieving. I came here knowing nobody will be upset if I don't do something good. But it was so relieving.”
One is enough: Both Andy Diaz Hernandez of Italy and Leyanis Perez Hernandez of Cuba had only one fair jump in the men’s and women’s triple jump in Nanjing. But their yearly world-leading efforts were more than enough to win each competition.
The 29-year-old Diaz Hernandez bounded an indoor national record of 17.80 (58-4¾) on his first attempt last Friday before fouling on his second jump, passing in the third, fourth, and fifth rounds and then running through the board on his sixth attempt.
Yaming Zhu of China won the silver medal with a best of 17.33 (56-10¼) and he was followed by defending champion Hugues Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso at 17.15 (56-3¼). Almir dos Santos of Brazil appeared to have finished third in the competition with a best of 17.22 (56-6), but he was later disqualified for not complying with rules concerning the spikes in which he competed.
“My plan was never to jump only once,” Diaz Hernandez said in a World Athletics post. “There was a very long wait in between jumps, so I was quite inactive for too long and this led to the decision of skipping the following attempts. But, I feel strong, and this is indicative that good jumps could happen this summer.”
The 23-year-old Perez Hernandez recorded a personal best of 14.93 (48-11¾) in the first round of the women’s event last Saturday before fouling on her second attempt, passing on her third, fouling on her fourth, and then passing in the final two rounds.
Compatriot Liadagmis Povea won the silver medal with a best of 14.57 (47-9¾), followed by Ana Peleteiro-Compaore of Spain at 14.29 (46-10¾) and defending champion Thea LaFond of Dominica at 14.18 (46-6¼).
“I didn't really expect this result, and to be able to win with a single jump of 14.93m,” Perez Hernandez said in a World Athletics post. “My goal was to improve my mark from last year's World Indoor Championships, so I am really pleased with my performance today. The more rivals out there, the better for achieving better results.”
She then added that she was looking forward to the return of Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela, the world record-holder and four-time defending World outdoor champion who missed all of last year with an Achilles tendon injury that required surgery.
What lays ahead?: Sander Skotheim of Norway and Saga Vanninen of Finland capped impressive undercover seasons with their victories in the men’s heptathlon and the women’s pentathlon, respectively, in the World indoor championships.
Their performances gave them three victories in their respective multi-event endeavors over a seven-week span and followed disappointing performances in the decathlon and heptathlon in the Olympic Games in Paris last August.
Skotheim had finished 18th in the Games after he was unable to clear his opening height of 4.50 (14-9) in the pole vault and Vanninen placed 15th in the heptathlon.
The 22-year-old Skotheim and the 21-year-old Vanninen began their streaks with victories in a multi-event meet in Tallinn, Estonia, at the start of February before totaling national records in the European Indoor Athletics Championship in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, earlier this month.
Then came their performances in Nanjing last week, when Vanninen won the pentathlon on Friday and Skotheim placed first in the two-day long heptathlon that concluded on Sunday.
Although Skotheim’s 6,475-point total was his third-best score of the year, it was the No. 13 mark in history and gave him a 38-point margin of victory over Johannes Erm of Estonia, whose 6,437-point total was a national record.
Skotheim had raised the European record to 6,558 points in Apeldoorn and moved to third on the all-time performer list with that effort.
“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.”
Vanninen had totaled 4,821 points in the pentathlon on Friday while finishing 79 points ahead of Kate O’Connor of Ireland, whose score of 4,742 followed her national-record effort of 4,781 in finishing third in the European championships.
Vanninen’s national record of 4,922 points in the European championships had moved her to 11th on the all-time performer list. Her victory last week followed a silver medal in last year’s World championships in Glasgow, Scottland, and she had previously won a pair of global U20 titles in the heptathlon in 2021 and ’22.
“This has been a big dream for me and now it's come true,” she said in a World Athletics post. “My training had been going really well, so I knew that I was in good shape, but I had a little problem with my knee which made me a bit nervous. This will help with my confidence, and of course with the World Championships in Tokyo, which is my biggest goal.”
Threepeats: Mondo Duplantis of Sweden and Grant Holloway of the U.S. added to their competitive legacies when they won their third consecutive titles in the men’s pole vault and 60-meter high hurdles, respectively, in the World Indoor championships last Saturday.
The 25-year-old Duplantis cleared 6.15 (20-2) in the pole vault and the 27-year-old Holloway ran 7.42 seconds in the hurdles.
“It was great,” Holloway said in a World Athletics post after his third global indoor title matched the trio he has won outdoors in the 110-meter barrier race. “This one was a little bit different. I didn't have two great rounds, and had to rely on my experience to get me through the final. But I knew what I had to do; I knew what I was missing. Everybody was telling me, ‘you've done this a million times before, you just got to do it again’.
“To win three indoors, and three outdoors, I think I'm the first person in history to ever do that. That's an amazing stat. Also, I think I can put grace in it, and hang up the 60m hurdles and try out a new event next year. That's something I can think about.”
While Holloway’s winning time of 7.42 gave him a large margin of victory over second-place Wilhem Belocian of France, who ran 7.54, and third-place Junxi Liu of China, who clocked 7.55, he had run 7.29 when he won the 2022 global title in Belgrade, Serbia, and in last year’s championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
He started his day on Saturday when he ran 7.49 in a first-round heat. That put him nearly a tenth of a second ahead of Belocian, but Holloway was only three hundredths of a second in front of the Frenchman when he clocked 7.48 in the third of three semifinals. In addition, Junxi had also run 7.51 in the second semifinal.
Those statistics might have led some to contemplate the unthinkable, that Holloway could be beaten in a 60 hurdles race for the first time since his sophomore year in high school, but he got off to one of his typically rocket starts in the final and had taken control of the race as he cleared the second of five barriers.
Duplantis, who had cleared 6.20 (20-4) and 6.05 (19-10¼) in winning his two previous world indoor titles, also got more competition than usual on Saturday as Emmanouil Karalis of Greece set a national record of 6.05 when he cleared that height on his first attempt.
Karalis had made all five of his attempts at that point in the competition, but he missed his first two tries at 6.10 (20-0) before he passed to 6.15 (20-2), where he missed his one — and only — allotted try at that bar.
Duplantis had cleared 5.70 (18-8¼), 5.90 (19-4¼), 6.00 (19-8¼), and 6.05 (19-10¼) on his first attempts. But he missed his first try at 6.10 (20-0) before making it on his second attempt after brushing the bar as he cleared it.
He had not looked great, by his standards, while vaulting at 6.10, but there was an impressive gap between him and the bar when he cleared 6.15 (20-2) on his first try.
However, he chose not to continue jumping after that, meaning that the world record of 6.27 (20-6¾) that he set in Clermont-Ferrand, France, at the end of February will stand for at least a little while longer.
Three and six: Tom Walsh of New Zealand won his third global indoor title — and his sixth medal overall — in the shot put in Nanjing on Sunday.
The 33-year-old Walsh won his first title 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). Leonardo Fabbri of Italy, the pre-meet favorite, placed fourth at 21.36 (70-1).
Walsh hit his winning mark in the first round and his second-best put of 21.48 (70-5¾) in the sixth.
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.
As expected: To the surprise of no one, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway won the men’s 3,000 and 1,500 meters in the World indoor championships.
The 24-year-old runner overtook Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia to win the 3,000 in 7:46.09 last Saturday, a day before he took the lead with 400 meters left in the 1,500 while on his way to a victorious time of 3:38.79.
Ingebrigtsen ran his final 200 in 26.67 and his last 400 in 54.42 in the 3,000, before clocking 26.84 and 54.16 for those same closing segments of the 1,500.
The victories followed a 3,000-1,500 double by Ingebrigtsen in the European championships and his two wins made him the second runner in the history of the World indoor championships to win the men’s 1,500 and 3,000 in the same meet.
Haile Gebreselassie of Ethiopia had been the first to achieve that double when he won the 3,000 in 8:53.57 and the 1,500 in 3:33.77 in the 1999 global indoor meet in Maebashi, Japan.
“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.”
Another double winner: Christopher Bailey of the U.S. had a hand in two victories in Nanjing when he won the men’s 400 meters in 45.08 seconds last Saturday before running the anchor leg on the victorious 4 x 400 relay team on Sunday.
Bailey led U.S. teammates Brian Faust and Jacory Patterson to a sweep of the gold, silver, and bronze medals in the 400 and the three of them then teamed up with Elija Godwin to win the 4 x 400 relay in 3:03.13.
Faust was a little more than tenth of a second ahead of second-place Bailey when he came through the first lap of the 400 final. But Bailey moved past him down the final backstretch and proceeded to turn a lead of five hundredths of a second at 300 meters into an advantage of nearly four tenths of a second at the finish as Faust clocked 45.47 and Patterson ran 45.54.
The U.S. was expected to roll to a win in the men’s 4 x 400 relay, but the squad was not quite as dominant as expected as its winning time left it less than two seconds in front of second-place Jamaica at 3:05.05.
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.
Gold medal caps undefeated season: Josh Hoey the U.S. saw his streak of personal bests come to a close in the men’s 800 meters in the World indoor championships on Sunday, but he 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 indoor times in 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.
“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 the World championships.
But that talk might have been overly optimistic when one considered that Hoey had to run in a qualifying heat of the 800 on Friday and in a semifinal on Saturday.
Nonetheless, he was in the lead when he came through the first lap in 24.80 seconds in the final 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 by that point and he had moved into second behind Hoey with 100 meters left in the race.
While the gap between them decreased during the home straightaway, Crestan couldn’t quite 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.
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.
Big improvement: Marcus Gustaveson moved from 26th to sixth on the all-time U.S. performer list in the men’s discus when he unleashed a throw of 70.63 (231-8) in the TCU Alumni meet in Fort Worth, Texas, last Friday.
That yearly world-leading throw crushed Gustaveson’s previous best of 67.21 (220-6) from last year, made him the seventh American to have thrown 70 meters (229-8) or farther, and was the top mark by a U.S. performer since Anthony Washington threw 71.14 (233-4) in 1996.
The 27-year-old Gustaveson threw 63.04 (206-10) on his first throw of the competition before hitting 62.05 (203-7) on his second, 62.84 (206-2) on his third, and 62.91 (206-4) on his fourth.
He then exploded to his 70.63 (231-8) effort in the fifth round before closing with a 65.24 (214-0) throw in the sixth.
Gustaveson, who finished third in the 2021 NCAA Division II championships when he was a senior at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota, placed sixth in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials last year after finishing ninth in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in 2023.
He had thrown 61.53 (201-10) in 2021, 64.46 (211-5) in ‘22, and 63.11 (207-0) in ’23 before upping his best to 67.21 (220-6) last year.
Impressive debut: Senior Lianna Davidson turned in a big performance in her first meet for the University of Georgia last Friday when she set two personal bests while moving to second on the all-time collegiate list in the women’s javelin throw in the Yellow Jacket Invitational in Atlanta.
The runner-up in the two previous NCAA championships for Texas A&M, Davidson’s top mark of 63.79 (209-3) came on her final throw after she had improved her personal best from 60.70 (199-1) to 62.59 (205-4) in the fifth round.
Freshman teammate Manuela Rotundo also had a big meet as she finished second at 61.13 (200-6) to move to eighth on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Davidson, who now ranks seventh on the all-time Australian performer list, had thrown 59.30 (194-7) in the first round and 60.02 (196-11) in the second before fouling on her third throw, and hitting 58.28 (191-2) on her fourth.
Nice transition: Senior Jayden Ulrich of the University of Louisville improved her personal best to 66.14 (217-0) in the women’s discus in the USF Alumni Invitational in Tampa, Florida, last Saturday after placing sixth in the shot put in the NCAA indoor championships in Virginia Beach, Virginia, a week earlier.
Ulrich’s top throw in the discus, which came on her final effort, topped her previous best of 64.29 (210-11) and moved her to fifth on the all-time collegiate performer list and to eighth on the all-time U.S. list.
After registering a foul on her first throw, the runner-up in last year’s U.S. Olympic Team Trials and NCAA championships threw 61.29 (201-1), 56.98 (186-11), 60.98 (200-1), and 201-8 (61.47) before hitting her big effort in the sixth round.
Two liners: Matthew Hudson-Smith of Great Britain, the silver medalist in the men’s 400 meters in the Olympic Games in Paris last summer, opened his season on Saturday when he won the 200 in 20.52 seconds in the Hurricane Invitational in Coral Gables, Florida. Hudson-Smith, who set a European record of 43.44 in the 400 in the Olympics, has a personal best of 20.34 in the 200. . . . . . . Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas, the 2019 World and 2021 Olympic champion in the men’s 400, won the 300 in 31.98 in his season-opener race in the Hurricane Invitational last Friday. Gardiner had his 2022, ’23, and ’24 seasons cut short by injuries. . . . . . . Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico, a medalist in the women’s 100-meter hurdles in the last four global title meets, won a heat of that race in 12.83 before winning the 100 in 11.34 in the Hurricane Invitational last Saturday. It was the first meet of the season for Camacho-Quinn, who placed third in the 100 hurdles in Paris after winning the Olympic title in Tokyo in 2021. . . . . . . Fred Kerley of the U.S., the 2022 World champion in the men’s 100, opened his season by winning that event in 10.23 in the Trojan Invitational in Los Angeles last Saturday. The 2024 Olympic bronze medalist finished three hundredths of a second ahead of second-place Eddie Nketia of USC and New Zealand. . . . . . . Trey Knight of Cal State Northridge moved to seventh on the all-time collegiate performer list in the men’s hammer throw when he won the event with a best of 77.91 meters (255 feet 7 inches) in the Trojan Invitational last Friday. Knight had finished second in the 35-pound-weight throw in the NCAA indoor championships a week earlier.
World record walk: Evan Dunfee of Canada, the bronze medalist in the men’s 50-kilometer walk in the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, and in the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, lowered the world record in the 35k event to 2 hours 41 minutes 40 seconds in Dudince, Slovakia, last Saturday.
The time by the 34-year-old Dunfee in the 44th edition of the Dudinska 50 trimmed seven seconds off the previous world record of 2:21:47 set by Masatora Kawano of Japan in October of last year.
Christopher Linke of Germany finished second in 2:24:40, followed by Julio Cesar Salazar of Mexico in 2:24:41.
Dunfee had been well ahead of world record pace for first 28 kilometers of the race, but he slowed some during the final 7,000 meters of the contest.
“I was well under pace, but then lost a little time over the last seven kilometres,” he said in a World Athletics post “I (then) got a little stressed out, but it was a dream come true.
“I would have liked it to be over 50km, my distance, but this is still very good, and I’m so proud to be on that winners plaque here at Dudince.”
Dunfee had a 10-second lead over his closest pursuers after he timed 4:09 for the first kilometer of the race and his advantage grew larger after that.
He was up by 30 seconds when he passed five kilometers in 20:18 and his lead was 76 seconds when he came through 10 kilometers in 40:22. He then passed 20 kilometers in 1:20:28 after a 10k split of 40:06 before coming through 30 kilometers in 2:00:59 after covering the previous 10k in 40:31.
Although his 20:41 split for the last five kilometers of the race was his slowest of the contest by 18 seconds, he managed to hang on for the world record.
The women’s 35-kilometer race was won by Paula Milena Torres of Ecuador, who finished more than a minute and a half ahead of Kimberly Garcia of Peru, the winner of the 20k and 35k races in the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Garcia’ second-place time of 2:45:59 left her a minute ahead of third-place Katarzyna Zdzieblo of Poland, who timed 2:46:59.
In contrast to the men’s race, the women’s contest was a back-and-forth affair until the final seven kilometers when Torres made a strong break that saw her come through 30 kilometers with a 49-second advantage over her closest pursuer. Her final time slashed more than seven minutes off her previous best of 2:51:42 that she had set last month.
The decisiveness of Torres’ late-race break was evident in her splits.
She averaged 23:37 for each 5k segment of the contest for the first 25 kilometers and then covered her final 10k in 46:21, an average of 23:10.5 per 5,000 meters.
In addition to the two 35-kilometer events in Dudince, Mateo Romero of Colombia won the men’s 20k race and Lyudmila Olyanovska of Ukraine took the women’s.
Romero clocked 1:20:17, with Mukola Rushchak of Ukraine finishing second in 1:21:00 and Ricardo Ortiz of Mexico placing third in 1:21:13.
Olyanovska timed 1:28:28, with Eleonara Anna Giorgi of Italy placing second in 1:28:32 and Hanna Shevchuk of Ukraine finishing third in 1:28:37.