Taliyah Brooks claims pentathlon bronze medal at World Indoors

NANJING, China – Arkansas alum Taliyah Brooks produced a career best score of 4,669 points to claim a bronze medal in the pentathlon on the first day of the World Indoor Championships.

The opening day also had four Razorbacks advancing. Chris Bailey ran a prelim and semifinal in the 400m, posting times of 45.70 in the first round and 45.91 in the semifinal. Bailey will be in lane 6 for the final.

In the women’s 400m, Arkansas alums Amber Anning and Rosey Effiong ran in adjacent lanes in the third section and finished 1-2 with Anning leading the field with a 50.79 while Effiong had the fifth best time overall at 52.13. Alexis Holmes, who trains in Fayetteville, won the second section in 51.67, which was fourth best overall.

The 400m final will have Anning in lane 6, Holmes in lane 4, and Effiong in lane 1.

Shafiqua Maloney advanced to the semifinal of the 800m with a time of 2:03.56 for third in the final section as the top three advanced from the four heats. Maloney races in the first section of the semifinal along with Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma and American Nia Akins.

This marks the first global medal for the 30-year-old Brooks, who placed third in the heptathlon at the 2024 Olympic Trials and finished 11th in the Olympic Games. Her score of 4,669 points ranks as the No. 8 performer on the U.S. all-time list.

Saga Vanninen of Finland won the pentathlon with 4,821 points while Ireland’s Kate O’Connor scored 4,742 points as the silver medalist.

“I’m more than happy,” noted Brooks. “It’s my first global medal, so World Indoor Championships bronze medalist sounds good. I was really happy with my shot put, but my jumps were not as good as I would have wanted them to be.

“It was a long travel with the time change, so during the long jump I started to get sleepy, and at 9:15 p.m. running 800m was hard for me. I’m glad it’s over and that I finished the five events.”

Brooks opened the competition by leading the field in the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.09 for 1,109 points over an 8.24 for fellow American Timara Chapman. A 5-10 (1.78) clearance in the high jump added 953 points to Brooks’ score.

Then a career best shot put of 47-2.5 (14.39) picked up 820 points. Brooks had the second best long jump with a 20-10 (6.35) mark that earned 959 points. Heading into the final event, Vanninen led the field at 3,932 with Brooks second at 3,841 while O’Connor was third with 3,838.

O’Connor ran the 800m in 2:14.19 to place third in the event while Vanninen posted a 2:15.28 to finish fourth. Vanninen claimed the overall title with O’Connor runner-up as they repeated their finish from the recent European Indoor Championships.

Brooks ran 2:19.67 to place 10th among the field and had enough cushion over Vanessa Grimm of Germany (4,481) and Timara Chapman (4,476), who finished fourth and fifth.

The point difference of 188 between Brooks in third place and the fourth-place score betters the previous best of 156 set in 1995.

It’s the third bronze medal for the United States in the history of the event as Brooks joins Kendell Williams (2022) and Barbara Nwaba (2016). The U.S. has also claimed gold (DeDee Nathan 1999) and silver (Kym Carter 1995).

World Indoor Championships | Arkansas Schedule

Day 2 | Morning Session (CT)