World Indoor: 400m Bronze for Holmes, Pole Vault 5th for Morris
GLASGOW, Scotland – Two finals on Saturday at the World Athletics Indoor Championships had Alexis Holmes earning a bronze medal in the 400m while two-time indoor champion Sandi Morris finished fifth in the pole vault.
Holmes, who trains in Fayetteville, produced a career best of 50.24 seconds in the 400m final starting in lane 3. She established a best mark for place at the World Indoors, bettering a 50.34 set in 2006. Holmes becomes the No. 3 performer with the No. 3 performance on the all-time U.S. indoor list.
“This is my first world championships and I am happy to be here,” said Holmes, who now has the fastest time by an American sprinter in a World Indoors. “Now I want to go for the gold next time. I am excited to get back to training again now.”
Finishing ahead of Holmes were a pair of sprinters from the Netherlands. Femke Bol lowered her world record to 49.17 for the victory while Lieke Klaver finished runner-up in 50.16. They both improved previous marks for place of 50.04 and 50.21, both of which were also set in 2006.
At 200m, Bol led the field in 23.61 over a 23.66 for Klaver and 24.06 for Holmes. At 300m, Bol’s 36.06 was followed by 36.27 for Klaver and 36.69 for Holmes.
Bol, a silver medalist in 2022, generated the fastest indoor time in the month of March. The previous best of 49.48 was set by Razorback Britton Wilson at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships.
“It was amazing,” said Bol. “It was such a strong race, I knew I had to go out fast. My coach said to me, you can run faster but to be honest I just wanted to win.
“This is great because I’ve not done hurdles for four weeks and it gives me confidence. And to get this with Lieke, it’s so good for our sport and our team.”
The rest of the 400m field included Laviai Nielsen of Great Britain finishing fourth in 50.89 with American Talitha Diggs fifth in 51.23 while Susanne Gogl-Walli of Austria placed sixth in 51.37.
A clearance of 15-3 (4.65) placed Morris fifth in the pole vault as she missed three attempts at 15-7 (4.75). Morris set the championship record of 16-2.75 (4.95) in winning gold in 2018 when the meet was held in Birmingham, England.
Great Britain’s Molly Caudery won gold with a 15-9 (4.80) clearance by virtue of fewer attempts at that height than New Zealand’s Eliza McCartney, who finished runner-up at the same height. American Katie Moon, the silver medalist in 2022, earned a bronze medal with a 15-7 (4.75) clearance.
Caudery claims the first British gold in the event as Holly Bleasdale’s bronze in 2012 was the previous medal for Great Britain.
