World Indoor gold for Amber Anning, silver for Tina Šutej

NANJING, China – Arkansas alum Amber Anning made history in becoming the first British female sprinter to win a world indoor title in the 400m on Saturday as she edged out American Alexis Holmes by 0.03 of a second at the World Indoor Championships. UA alum Tina Šutej finished as the silver medalist in the pole vault after being the bronze medalist at the 2022 World Indoors.

Anning added the World Indoor meet to her schedule after being disqualified in the first round of the 400m at the European Indoor Championships two weeks ago.

Finishing the first lap of the World Indoor 400m final, Anning was bumped by Alexis Holmes into lane two as each aimed for the lead at the 200m point of the race. Remaining composed and occupying second place, Anning waited until the homestretch to challenge Holmes for the lead.

On the last pair of strides to the finish line Anning edged ahead as Holmes fell leaning for the win. Anning earned the gold medal with a time of 50.60 as Holmes claimed silver in 50.63.

“World champion sounds nice,” exclaimed Anning. “It's been a journey. It wasn't the cleanest of races, but in the end I was competitive, and I'm just grateful I was able to get the win.

“In the last 20-30 meters, I think I lost control of myself, my technique. But I knew that the race wasn't over until it's over, and I just had to use my strength to really just dig deep. It'll be one for the books. It just feels like redemption after what happened at the Europeans.”

Norway’s Henrietta Jaeger finished in the bronze medal position with a time of 50.92. In last year’s World Indoor meet held in Scotland, Jaeger ran 51.48 in the semifinal to produce the fastest time to not qualify for the final in World Indoor history.

Razorback Rosey Effiong, starting in lane 1, finished sixth in the final with a time of 52.90.

In race analysis from the women’s 400m final, Anning led from lane 6 at 100m (11.80) and 200m (23.67) with Holmes in lane 5 producing splits of 11.97 and 23.70. Holmes led the field at 300m in 36.38 with Anning second at 36.54. Anning covered the final 100m in 14.06 compared to 14.25 for Holmes and 14.17 for Jaeger.

“To finish my indoor season with this high, it's just amazing,” said Anning. “There are so many people who go into it in my team, so for them, to let them know that their work hasn't juts gone anywhere, to give back to them for the support that I've had throughout.”

Coming off her third silver medal performance at the European Indoor Championships, the 36-year-old Šutej added another silver medal to her collection with a 15-5 (4.70) clearance. Clearing that height on first attempt moved Šutej into gold medal position.

Marie-Julie Bonnin of France won the competition when she was the lone vaulter to scale over 15-7 (4.75) as she equaled the French national record. Switzerland’s Angelica Moser finished as the bronze medalist over defending champion Molly Caudrey of Great Britain as both cleared 15-5.

“I’m very happy with a new medal from this World Championships,” said Šutej. “This is my second medal at World Indoors, and it was an upgrade from bronze to silver. It would have been better if it was gold, but I’ll take this one also.”