Josh Hoey (800m) and Claire Bryant (long jump) won gold medals in their global championship debuts as the U.S. finished the World Indoor Track and Field Championships atop the medal standings.
The U.S. men’s and women’s 4x400m relays also prevailed Sunday in Nanjing, China.
Hoey held off Belgian Eliott Crestan by four hundredths to take the men’s 800m in 1:44.77. Hoey missed the 2024 Olympic team by one spot, then last month ran the second-fastest indoor 800m in history (1:43.24).
“I was almost at the point of giving up before I finally met my new coach (Justin Rinaldi in 2023) and we got a breakthrough,” said Hoey, who turned professional out of high school in 2018.
WORLD INDOORS: Full Results
Bryant won the women’s long jump with a personal best leap of 6.96 meters. Bryant, a 23-year-old former Florida Gator, was 10th at the 2024 Olympic Trials.
“I didn’t come in with expectations,” she said. “I just wanted to enjoy the moment, live in the moment. I just kept saying over and over, ‘This is awesome.’ Every part of this is so cool, even talking to you. Every part of this meet. The hotel food has been great.”
The U.S. previously picked up gold medals on Saturday from Grant Holloway (60m hurdles) and Chris Bailey (400m).
World Indoors highlights air Sunday at 12 p.m. ET on NBC and 3:30 on CNBC.
Also Sunday, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen followed Saturday’s 3000m title with a victory in the 1500m. He’s the second man to win the two longest events at the same indoor worlds after Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie in 1999.
Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay won the women’s 1500m in 3:54.86, the fourth-fastest time in history, to crush the field by 4.46 seconds. Tsegay owns all of the four fastest times in history, including the world record of 3:53.09.
The outdoor season ramps up next month with the debut of the Grand Slam Track series. The first meet is April 4-6 in Kingston, Jamaica, with live coverage on Peacock.
