Amber Anning announced herself on the global stage by becoming Great Britain’s first women’s 400m champion at the World Athletics Indoor Championships.
At the beginning of her first season as a professional athlete, the 24-year-old clocked 50.60 seconds to edge a dramatic race to the line against American Alexis Holmes.
It is only two weeks since Anning was left devastated at the European indoors, where her medal bid was ended by a disqualification for a lane infringement.
But she held her nerve following a mid-race shove from Holmes before measuring her final effort to perfection to claim her first international title in Nanjing, China.
Anning initially showed little emotion after her hard-fought victory, before collecting a British flag and beginning a lap of honour at the Nanjing Cube.
Attempting to defend her place on the inside of the track at the start of the final lap, the 25-year-old Holmes fell across the line as Anning clinched victory by three one hundredths of a second.
Henriette Jaeger of Norway took the bronze in 50.92.
Elsewhere, Armand Duplantis, better known as Mondo, won a third consecutive world indoor title in the men’s pole vault competition, during which he surpassed 100 career clearances over six metres.
In perhaps the clearest demonstration of her belief that this was her time, Anning was presented with a British flag featuring her name after landing the biggest prize of her career.
It is only the beginning of Anning’s maiden season as a full-time professional athlete and, having graduated from the University of Arkansas last year, her attention is now fully fixed on pursuing major honours.
In an outstanding breakout 2024 season, the London-born athlete ran 49.29 secs to smash the British 400m record and finish fifth on her Olympic debut in Paris.
In falling just 0.31 seconds short of the podium in her first major individual final, and leaving the French capital with two relay medals, the Briton had already proved her exciting potential on the sport’s biggest stage.
Anning established herself as a gold medal contender with an impressive win in her heat at the European indoors, before her disqualification for a lane infringement saw her depart the arena in tears.
But she bounced back to help the women’s 4x400m relay team achieve silver in Apeldoorn – and again here, in an individual capacity, to triumph with gold in captivating fashion.
Anning underlined her title credentials with a statement 400m qualification on Friday, setting the fastest time in the heats by clocking 50.79 secs to set up her shot at a first individual international medal.
Just 0.13 seconds separated Anning, Holmes and the 21-year-old Jaeger for season’s best times before Nanjing, and the final could hardly have seen Anning prevail in a dramatic finish.
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