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Cooper Lutkenhaus became the youngest athlete to win a men’s individual title at the World Athletics Indoor Championships when the 17-year-old American took gold in the 800 metres on Sunday in Torun, Poland.
Lutkenhaus came home ahead of Belgium’s Eliott Crestan to win in one minute 44.24 seconds. The previous record was held by Ethiopian Mohammed Aman, who was 18 years and 61 days when he won gold in the 800 in 2012.
“I came out here thinking I probably wasn’t the favourite, but any time I feel like I can step into a final I have a chance to win,” said Lutkenhus, who turned professional seven months ago and signed with Nike.
“Maybe it came from confidence or maybe from being too young, but I really wanted to try to make a defining move. I believed in that on the third lap [and] just wanted to try to take it from there.”
Lutkenhaus’s win put the United States on top of the medal table with five gold, with Britain at four for its best haul at the event.
Last September, he was the youngest American ever to compete at outdoor worlds (16 years, eight months) when he raced the heats in Tokyo. Lutkenhaus didn’t advance to the semifinals.
WATCH: 17-year-old Cooper Lutkenhaus 🇺🇸 becomes the youngest WORLD INDOOR CHAMPION EVER as he wins the 800m gold medal at the World Indoor Championships in 1:44.24. 🥇 pic.twitter.com/SA6FXj7Mf4
Lutkenhaus is in his junior year at Northwest High School in Texas.
Two months earlier, Lutkenhaus shattered his own U.S. 800 high school mark and broke the U18 world record with a 1:42.27 runner-up finish at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Bahamas sprinter Devynne Charlton matched her own world record by clocking 7.65 seconds to win the 60m hurdles for a third straight year.
Charlton also ran 7.65 at world indoors in 2024.
6th in 100m hurdles at 2 Olympics
Nadine Visser of the Netherlands captured silver in 7.73 and Pia Skrzyszowska took bronze before her home fans with the same time.
Charlton finished sixth in the 100m hurdles at the 2021 Tokyo and 2024 Paris Olympics.
Sienna McDonald (Airdrie, Alta.) and Mariam Abdul-Rashid (Oshawa, Ont.) didn’t advance to the final, with each placing eighth in their respective semifinal heats in 8.05 and 8.35.
The U.S. swept men’s and women’s relay gold in the 400m event.
Justin Robinson, Chris Robinson, Demarius Smith and Khaleb McRae clocked a championship record 3:01.52 and Bailey Lear, Rosey Effiong, Paris Peoples and Shamier Little set a season’s best 3:25.81.
Also, Keely Hodgkinson won the women’s 800 in a championship record 1:55.30 for the first world title of her career.
Georgia Hunter Bell claimed gold in the 1,500 and Molly Caudery won the women’s pole vault on a big night for Britain.
