US teen Lutkenhaus breaks world junior indoor 800m record

Washington (United States) (AFP) – American athletics prodigy Cooper Lutkenhaus broke the world junior indoor 800-meters record on Saturday with a victory in 1min 44.03secs at the Sound Running meet in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The 17-year-old Texan won the invitational event by 0.70 of a second over Penn State’s Handal Roban to become the sixth-fastest athlete indoors in 800m history.

Lutkenhaus erased the under-20 world record of 1:44.35 set in January 2000 by Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy, who won 800m Olympic gold in 2004 at Athens. Lutkenhaus was a stunning runner-up at last year’s American championships at Eugene, Oregon, to earn a berth in the 2025 World Championships at Tokyo.

Related news

Kenya’s former NY marathon champion Korir gets 5-year doping ban

March 30, 2026

803

Switzerland’s Ehammer sets indoor heptathlon world record

March 22, 2026

343

Kerr ‘frustrated’ at six-figure sum owed to him by Johnson’s failed Grand Slam Track

March 17, 2026

604

Former 100m champion Kerley banned two years over whereabouts failures

March 7, 2026

352

Reigning world champs Tinch, Hocker among Millrose winners

February 1, 2026

568

US sprint star Richardson arrested on speeding charge in Florida

January 29, 2026

535

Also in the Winston-Salem meet, Paris Olympic 1,500m champion Cole Hocker won the mile in 3:45.94 with fellow American Cooper Teare second in 3:50.49. Hocker clocked the second fastest world indoor mile time in history behind the world record of 3:45.14 set by Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen last February in France.

© 2024 AFP