2025 World Indoors Day 3: Jakob Ingebrigtsen Sweeps 1500/3000, 800 Gold for Josh Hoey, & Gudaf Tsegay Dominates

NANJING, China — Jakob Ingebrigtsen is a global 1500-meter champion again. After winning the biggest prize in middle distance running — the Olympic 1500m title — as a 20-year-old in 2021, Ingebrigtsen entered the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing having lost hist last four global 1500 finals. That winless streak is now over after Ingebrigtsen took gold on Sunday night in China in 3:38.79, joining Haile Gebrselassie in 1999 as the only man to sweep the 1500 and 3000 meter titles at World Indoors. Great Britain’s Neil Gourley (3:39.07) and the USA’s Luke Houser (3:39.17), both first-time medalists, rounded out the 1500 podium.

From an American perspective, the highlight on Sunday came when Josh Hoey claimed gold in the 800 meters in 1:44.77 to cap his remarkable journey to world champion. A year ago, Hoey was a fringe figure in the sport, a former phenom who had barely improved on his 1:47.67 high school personal best. Now he is a 1:43 man, the second-fastest in history indoors, and a world indoor champion — the third American in the last 10 years to claim that title, after Boris Berian in 2016 and Bryce Hoppel in 2024.

The Americans were not as fortunate in the women’s 1500 as Sinclaire Johnson (4:04.07) and Heather MacLean (4:05.45) disappointed and finished a distant 5th and 6th with world record holder Gudaf Tsegay running away with it up front, setting a championship record of 3:54.86 — a time only Tsegay herself has ever bettered indoors.

South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso pulled the upset to win the women’s 800 in a world-leading 1:58.40 after defending champ Tsige Duguma torpedoed her race by going out super hard (26.8) and fading badly over the last lap, taking dead last in 2:04.76.

Analysis and interviews below from the final night of action in Nanjing.

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*Results

Jakob Ingebrigtsen takes care of business (again)

In the list of Ingebrigtsen’s greatest accomplishments, his 2025 World Indoor double will not rank especially high. He has run faster times and recorded greater championships victories on bigger stages. His two gold medals from Nanjing are two more to be added to a pile that includes two from the Olympics, two from the outdoor Worlds, and 16 across Euro indoors/outdoors/XC. But before tonight, he’d never won a global 1500m world title outside of the Olympics – , he was 0-4 at Worlds (4th 2019 outdoors, 2nd 2022 indoors and outdoors, 2nd in 2023 outdoors).

By World Championship standards, tonight’s 1500m field wasn’t strong. The silver went to Neil Gourley, 6th at Millrose and 4th at Euro Indoors two weeks ago. The bronze to Luke Houser, who was only 3rd at USA indoors. Ingebrigtsen admitted he was disappointed that his 1500m rivals from Paris last year were not here to face him — “Aren’t we all?” he said after Friday’s prelims — but that did not deter him from traveling all the way to China. There were medals to be won, and Ingebrigtsen was not going to let someone else win them.

Ingebrigtsen closed in 1:50.55/54.16/26.84 from the front for his last 800/400/200, and while those numbers won’t strike fear into the hearts of Cole Hocker or Josh Kerr, they were enough for gold on Sunday. Because of his incredible times — most recently, a 3:45.14 indoor mile world record this season — as well as Ingebrigtsen’s unabashed quest to become the greatest runner ever, there is a tendency to expect the spectacular every time Ingebrigtsen touches the track.

But sometimes the spectacular is the ability to stack win after win on top of one another, again and again and again. Over the last 18 days, Ingebrigtsen ran four races in four days at Euros in the Netherlands and three races in three days at World Indoors in China, including four finals across both meets. Plenty of things could have derailed him during that span — illness, jet lag, fatigue, take your pick. Yet Ingebrigtsen won ’em all. It is a testament to his greatness that he has made all of this feel normal.

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Don’t expect to see Ingebrigtsen in Grand Slam Track this year

Ingebrigtsen is the most famous track distance runner on the planet and as such is one of the biggest stars who has not been signed to Grand Slam Track as a Racer. Ingebrigtsen is not part of the Kingston field two weeks from now and just committed to the Ostrava Golden Spike meet on June 24, ruling him out of the final Slam in LA.

I asked him whether he would run any GST meets, and while Ingebrigtsen did not give a firm “no,” the prospect appears unlikely. He wants to spend the next few months training rather than spending a long weekend in Kingston or Miramar, Fla. He also commands among the highest appearances fees on the entire Diamond League circuit. For most runners, Grand Slam Track offers a significant pay bump from the DL. But not necessarily for Ingebrigtsen.

“I really have to focus on training,” Ingebrigtsen said. “I have had a good indoor season but I have also had a good leadup in my training in the period leading up to this indoor season. And I also have to do the same thing for the outdoor season. So it’s all about prioritizing the correct things so that I can be at the fitness that I want when I really want it. And of course main goal this year is Tokyo and also some good races in June and July and August and September leading up to the World Championship.”

Neil Gourley changes things up and is rewarded

Gourley, 30, is good at making finals but historically hasn’t been able to do much once he gets there. Prior to tonight, he had made 10 finals across Euros/Worlds/Olympics/Commonwealths and finished outside the top four in eight of them, with just one medal (2023 Euro indoor silver). He said he felt that in previous races, he would try to get to the front and start panicking about when the inevitable move was going be made with someone coming from behind.

On Sunday, Gourley took a different approach: track Ingebrigtsen. It took some of the stress off and Gourley, who trains under Stephen Haas in Flagstaff as part of Dark Sky Distance, was pleased to have earned a silver, his first global medal.

“The idea was, let’s just go to the back and use his momentum when he moves, and that’s what I did,” Gourley said. “And I felt much better doing that today and just going when the race was going.”

Luke Houser goes from 4:03 to a World Indoor medal in two months

After he ran 4:03 to get beaten by 10 seconds in his 2025 opener in the mile at the Dr. Sander Scorcher on January 25, Houser did not look as if he had big things in store this campaign. After he ran poorly again a week later — an 8:03 3k in Boston — Houser considered calling it a season. But his coach, Tommy Nohilly of the Atlanta Track Club, still believed. When Houser arrived back in Atlanta, Nohilly picked him up from the airport and took him out for pizza, encouraging him to keep going.

“[He] told me it’s there, you’ve just gotta race,” Houser said.

Houser wound up racing a total of six weekends in a row, dropping his mile time from 4:03 to 3:56 to 3:53 to 3:51. By the time he arrived in Nanjing, Houser knew he was fit and ready to medal.

Houser has developed a reputation as “Mr. March” for winning back-to-back NCAA indoor mile titles in 2023 and 2024, and showed once again tonight that he can deliver big performances in indoor championships. The challenge for Houser is carrying that through to the outdoor season. After his NCAA mile titles, Houser was only 10th and 12th in the NCAA outdoor finals and failed to make the Olympic Trials final last year.

“If you want to be on the team outdoors, you’ve gotta be pretty much competing for a world medal outdoors,” Houser said.

Tonight was a good start. But Houser will need to get stronger (his 1500 pb is only 3:35.24) if he is to break up the Hocker/Nuguse/Kessler trio.

Josh Hoey caps his rise with a World Indoor title

Given how dominant Hoey was at USAs and in the rounds in Nanjing, many expected him to run away with tonight’s title. And Hoey himself said he was ready to “rip it” in tonight’s final after making 1:45 look very, very comfortable in Saturday’s semis. Instead, Hoey “only” ran 1:44.77, the slowest of his three 800 finals this year, and had to work hard to hold onto the gold late in the race, holding off Belgium’s Eliott Crestan by just .04. Hoey said the feeling he had at the end was one he had yet to experience this season.

“I felt myself fatiguing a lot,” Hoey said. “I felt myself wishing for the finish line.”

And yet Hoey was still good enough to hold off the hard-charging Crestan (1:44.81) and Elvin Canales (1:45.03) for the gold. Hoey has been going almost non-stop since the last indoor season, as he barely took any time off after the 2024 outdoor season — just enough to pack up his stuff from Pennsylvania and drive out to Flagstaff for fall training.

Hoey’s transformation since beginning to work with coach Justin Rinaldi in the fall of 2023 cannot be overstated. To go from a stagnant 1:47 guy to 1:43 to World Indoor champ in less than a year-and-a-half is a testament to the work both men have put in.

Consider this stat. One year ago, Hoey had never broken 1:47 in his life. His pb was 1:47.04 and he didn’t first break 1:47 until March 30, 2024, when he skipped the 1:46s entirely and ran 1:45.54 at the Florida Relays.

Brandon Miller went for it and had no regrets

At USA indoors, Miller let Hoey get the lead and stuck on him like glue until the last lap, at which point Hoey ran away from him. This time around, Miller wanted to challenge him and passed Hoey to take the lead after a 50.64 opening 400. Making a move when the pace is already that fast is a risk, and Miller eventually paid the price, fading to 5th in 1:46.44. But Miller said he believes he will be stronger and sharper come outdoors and made no apologies for trying something bold in an attempt to win the race.

“Obviously it’s disappointing, but when you run to win, sometimes that happens,” Miller said.

The Ethiopian women all ran crazy hard from the gun, with mixed results

When you are way fitter than everyone else in the field, you don’t always need perfect tactics. Three years ago in Belgrade, Gudaf Tsegay went out in 61.83/2:06.17 for 400/800, gapping the field early to run 3:57.19 and win by 5.10 seconds. Tonight, the indoor world record holder Tsegay ran back the same gameplan, except she took it out even harder — 60.50/2:03.44 — and held on to run faster (3:54.86). Considering Tsegay is the only woman to have run sub-3:55 indoors, any strategy that results in her running 3:54 is going to have a very strong chance of success.

That doesn’t mean it’s sensible to do what Tsegay does (she uses this strategy a lot). There is something to be said for opening a gap and killing the field’s morale, but if her aim is to run as fast as possible, there are more efficient ways to do that than dropping a 60.5 first lap. But Tsegay’s dominance must be respected.

One woman who went out hard and was punished was Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma. Duguma likes to be at the front and tried very hard to get there in the women’s 800m final. She was essentially in an all-out sprint at the break-in point, but still couldn’t get around countrywoman Nigist Getachew as Getachew went out in 26.62 for her first 200 (Duguma, who ran extra distance on the turn, came through in 26.80) and 55.88 for her first 400 (56.09 for Duguma).

Getachew (silver in 1:59.63) and South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso (gold in 1:58.40) held up well to earn the top two places, but Duguma blew up horribly and finished last in 2:04.76 after a very painful 37.36 last 200m.

Women’s 1500 race video

Women’s 800 race video

Sinclaire Johnson & Heather MacLean flopped on the big stage

Johnson and MacLean had both been running well recently, and both entered Nanjing with outside chances of a medal. Obviously neither was catching Tsegay today, and the other two medalists, Diribe Welteji and Georgia Hunter Bell, finished 4th and 3rd at last year’s Olympics. It would have required a strong race from Johnson or MacLean to break them up and land on the podium, but the possibility was there. Welteji was 2nd in 3:59.30 and Hunter Bell 3rd in 3:59.84.

That is quick, but MacLean just split 3:59.60 en route to a 4:17.01 mile in Boston and Johnson said at USAs she believes she is in 3:56 shape right now. But Johnson could only manage 4:04.07 and MacLean 4:05.45, and neither closed particularly strongly, with Johnson running her last 400 in 65.85 and MacLean in 65.79. There’s no sugarcoating this: both ran very poorly on Sunday night, and neither could explain why.

“I think I’m better than that, but that was my result today,” MacLean said. “I did go out there and give it my all, I just felt kind of flat.”

“It was tough today, just felt kind of bad from the start, honestly and just trying to grind through it,” Johnson said. “It’s tough to have those days, but I’m proud of the way I fought through it.”

Talk about World Indoors on our world famous messageboard at Letsrun.com/forum:

• Official 2025 World Indoors Day 3 Dicussion Thread (+Live Reaction Show at 9:30 am ET)
• Jakob — GOAT STATUS ACHIEVED
• Jakob now only needs 1500m Outdoor WC Gold
• Luke MF Houser – Luke Houser has a world championship medal
• Shelby Houlihan: world silver medalist
• BRANDON MILLER: absolute WORST tactic he could have attempted
• Will anyone sponsor Shelby?
• Tsegay must be reading LR
• Hoey and Ingebrigtsen talk to LRC post-race

We did a live video reaction show from Nanjing which you can watch below.