American teenager becomes youngest ever winner of a world indoor title with 800m victory in Toruń.
Many American teenagers go on beach holidays or spend their time partying during their annual spring break. Instead, Cooper Lutkenhaus travelled to Poland for the World Indoor Championships and became the youngest ever winner of a gold medal at this meeting when he claimed 800m gold on Sunday (March 22).
Last year, aged 16, he created a storm when he clocked a world under-18 record of 1:42.27 at the US Championships to qualify for the Worlds in Tokyo. Out in Japan he underperformed and was seventh in his heat, but he has clearly wintered well and also turned 17 on December 19.
In Toruń he followed Eliott Crestan through 400m in 51.91 but moved into the lead soon after and was too strong for the Belgian athlete as he came home in 1:44.24 with Creston clocking 1:44.38 and Mohamed Attaoui of Spain finishing fast in third with 1:44.66.
Previously, the youngest athlete to win a world indoor title was Mohammed Aman of Ethiopia, who was 18 years and 61 days when he won gold, also over 800m, in 2012.
Lutkenhaus was aged three at the time of Aman’s victory. On Sunday the teenager said: “I came into this knowing I probably wasn’t the favourite, but anytime I step into a final, I believe I have a chance to win.”
His gold was United States’ fifth of these championships, putting them top of the medals table ahead of Britain, who won four.
“Maybe it came from confidence or maybe from being too young but I really wanted to try to make a defining move,” he continued. “I believed in that on the third lap – I just wanted to try to take it from there.
“I’m so surprised how much support I received from everybody around me being a teenager and starting to compete at the senior level – the highest level. I heard guys yelling for me from the infield for the whole race especially in the last 150m. They got me to the finish line in first position. Team USA has such a great group together.”
Amusingly, in a medal ceremony mix-up Lutkenhaus was given Keely Hodgkinson’s gold by accident and the Brit received the men’s 800m gold in return. However, they soon exchanged their prizes.
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A crestfallen Crestan said: “I am happy with the medal of course but, right after the race, I felt a little bit of disappointment. But Cooper’s acceleration was very strong – he is an incredible talent winning at 17 years of age. I think he can be the future Rudisha.”