Jakob Ingebrigtsen Gets His World Indoor Gold; Shelby Houlihan Gets Her First Medal Ever

NANJING, China – Olympic champion. World outdoor champion. And now, world indoor champion. At the age of 24, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen has completed a career sweep of global track titles.

Ingebrigtsen’s latest victory on Saturday night came at 3,000 meters, the event in which he crushed Daniel Komen’s legendary world record by running 7:17.55 last summer. Saturday’s final at the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships was far slower, Ingebrigtsen waiting until the final strides to pull ahead of Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi (a 7:21 3k man himself) to clinch the victory in 7:46.09 to Aregawi’s 7:46.25.

The list of men’s distance runners to win gold at the Olympics, world outdoors, and world indoors is just six names long. All are legends of the sport. Morceli. Aouita. El Guerrouj. Haile. Bekele. 

And now Jakob.

Behind Aregawi, Ky Robinson of Australia and the On Athletics Club outkicked American Sam Gilman in a fierce battle for the bronze, 7:47.09 to 7:49.19, catching him just before the line after Gilman had passed Robinson with 100m to go.

In the women’s 3,000, Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu dominated over the last two laps, powering away to win by over a second in 8:37.21 thanks to a 59.07 final 400. The battle for the silver came down to the wire, with American Shelby Houlihan edging Australia’s Jessica Hull, 8:38.26 to 8:38.28. It was Houlihan’s first global medal in her first major championship since returning from her four-year doping suspension in January.

In other action, Americans Chris Bailey (45.08), Brian Faust (45.47), and Jacory Patterson (45.54) completed an unprecedented 1-2-3 sweep in the men’s 400 while Great Britain’s Amber Anning (50.60) ran down the USA’s Alexis Holmes (50.63) to win a physical women’s 400 final. Mondo Duplantis won a historic pole vault final by clearing 6.15m as Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis cleared 6.05m (T-#7 all-time) for silver. It was the first competition in history to feature two men over 6.05.

On the straightaway, Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji (7.04) regained the 60m title she won in 2022 while Grant Holloway extended his record in the 60m hurdles to an incredible 72-0 lifetime, running 7.42 to win his third straight world indoor title.

Below, seven thoughts from a busy night in Nanjing.

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*Full results

Jakob Ingebrigtsen did just enough to win tonight

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Tonight was Ingebrigtsen’s first world indoor title, but it was hardly a vintage Ingebrigtsen race. In fact, his performance at Euro Indoors two weeks ago was more impressive in almost every respect. Though the winning time tonight was marginally faster (7:46.09 to 7:48.37), he closed faster at Euros for the last 1000 (2:19.07 vs 2:22.77 tonight), 400 (53.87 vs. 54.42 tonight), and 200 (26.27 vs 26.67).

The better comparison is to the 1500 at Euros. In that race, just like this one, Ingebrigtsen tried to win while saving as much energy as possible for his second race of the championships. Ingebrigtsen’s priority tonight was the gold medal, not earning style points.

“When you’re closing in on the finish line, you have this speed that you kind of feel like you should be running, and the same rhythm,” Ingebrigtsen said. “And we were definitely running slower than I would have done if I was in the front. But it’s also a position to be in that you have to not do anything stupid and try to race my competitors.”

Ingebrigtsen tried to get the lead at the bell, but Aregawi fought him off, forcing Ingebrigtsen to run extra distance on both turns on the last lap. Ingebrigtsen was still confident that he could overhaul Aregawi in the home straight, however, noting that he did the same thing against Aregawi to win the 3k at the Lausanne Diamond League in 2021.

Up next for Ingebrigtsen is the 1500 final on Sunday. Given it’s his last race of the indoor season and features weaker competition than tonight, expect a more dominant performance from Ingebrigtsen in that one.

Ky Robinson flourishing in his first year with On Athletics Club

There were two great races in the final 100m of the men’s 3000m final: one for the gold between Ingebrigtsen and Aregawi, the other for the bronze between Robinson and Gilman. Gilman trailed Robinson by four meters at the bell, then passed him with 100 meters to go only for Robinson to battle back and pass Gilman back just before the finish line. Running in his first global final, Robinson raced like a savvy veteran, conserving energy well, showing confidence in taking the lead with just under 800 to go, and closing strong all the way through the line.

Robinson, like Ingebrigtsen, drew inspiration from a previous race, as he had also been passed in the final 100 at Millrose by training partner Dylan Jacobs only to come back late and pass Jacobs just before the line.

After sweeping the NCAA 5k/10k titles at Stanford in 2023, Robinson failed to win an NCAA title in 2024, finishing 3rd in the 5k indoors and outdoors. But he has made a big jump in 2025 in his first year full year with On Athletics Club under Dathan Ritzenhein, running an Australian indoor record of 7:30.38 at Millrose and now earning a World Indoor medal. He said that he has been running workouts he could not have believed a year ago — and doing it all at altitude.

“It’s a miracle,” Robinson said. “I didn’t know how good it was until I went there. It’s just a great group that you can tell we’re all so focused. We all want to be the best.”

Robinson’s medal will help make up for a rough 1500 for OAC as none of Olli Hoare, Maia Ramsden, or Sinta Vissa made the final in Nanjing.

Sam Gilman caps an “A+” season by narrowly missing a medal

Just as at USA indoors three weeks ago, the two clear pre-race favorites were battling for the win tonight with 100 meters to go. And just as at USA indoors, Sam Gilman was just behind them in third. Gilman had even been making up ground on Ingebrigtsen and Aregawi on the back straight before the two men hit a gear Gilman does not possess.

And while Gilman was ultimately outkicked for bronze, he was pleased with his race and his season as a whole, which he graded as an A+.

“I don’t think anybody would have said at the beginning of the year that Sam Gilman would be making the US indoor team and he’d be close to medalling at a global championship,” Gilman said.

He is right about that. Gilman will face stiffer competition to make the US 5k team outdoors — Grant Fisher, Cole Hocker, Abdihamid Nur, Cooper Teare, Parker Wolfe, Graham Blanks, to name just a few — but based on his indoor season, he should be in the thick of the battle. Remember, two of the three guys to beat him in Nanjing have pbs of 7:17 and 7:21.

Gilman ran well tonight, but might have earned a medal had he positioned himself better in the late stages. Unlike Robinson, who moved to the front and stayed near there even after Aregawi and Ingebrigtsen took over, Gilman was only 9th with 320m to run and though he moved up after that, he was still four meters behind Robinson at the bell. Gilman had the faster last lap (26.89 to Robinson’s 27.17); had he been in front at the bell, their final positions may have been flipped.

Gilman, who lives and works for the Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, was recently accepted into the Air Force’s World-Class Athlete Program. He has worked with coaches Mark Coogan and Mike Scannell in the last year and said there will be an announcement soon to clarify his future. Considering Scannell was in China for the meet, that relationship looks set to continue. If it does, Gilman could be the perfect training partner for Scannell’s star athlete Grant Fisher — assuming they can figure out all the details with the Air Force.

Freweyni Hailu crushed it

Hailu has shown her versatility across three appearances at World Indoors, earning silver in the 800 in 2022, gold in the 1500 last year, and now gold in the 3000 in Nanjing. There was no doubt who was the best in the race tonight as she closed in 59.07 with a 28.70 last lap to bury Olympic silver medalist Jessica Hull and the rest of this field.

The problem for Hailu is that Ethiopia is so deep in the 1500 right now that it is far from a guarantee she makes the Worlds team outdoors — her 3:54.16 sb last year ranked just fourth among Ethiopian women. Despite finishing 4th in the 1500 at the 2021 Olympics and 2022 Worlds, she was only selected for the 5000 at the 2023 Worlds and was not selected for the 2024 Olympics at all (she also endured an acrimonious split with Gudaf Tsegay‘s training group at the end of 2022).

Shelby Houlihan feels all the emotions as she returns from doping ban to win first global medal

When Houlihan crossed the finish line in 2nd place, edging Jess Hull for the silver by just .02 of a second, she felt happy. That is to be expected for a 32-year-old who finally earned her first global medal. But there was another emotion not normally present for most athletes in that moment: grief.

“It’s been a long journey,” Houlihan said. “Excited for today and now but also kind of grieving the past a bit.”

That journey — four years in the wilderness as she served a suspension triggered by a positive test for the banned substance nandrolone — has been filled with other emotions, as well. At first, she said, there was anger, because Houlihan maintains that she never knowingly ingested nandrolone — a position the CAS panel that decided her case did not agree with. That feeling still lingers, Houlihan said, but it has faded over time.

Then there was doubt, and a lot of uncertainty — about her running future, and the very core of her identity.

“Running had been part of my life since I was 5,” Houlihan said. “It’s like, who am I without this? I didn’t know.”

As Houlihan trained during her four-year ban, she said that anger is what kept her going early on. But she did not find that to be a good motivator. Another emotion replaced it: fear. There were many moments, Houlihan said, where she considered quitting. She had no shoe contract (still doesn’t), she would be 31 when she returned, and her next race was still years away. But she was afraid of growing old and wondering what might have been had she given up.

“I’m glad I didn’t [quit],” Houlihan said. “It was not easy. I’m glad that I stuck it out. I’m proud that I did.”

Now, barely two months after her suspension was lifted, Houlihan has already done something she never could prior to her suspension: win a global medal. There will be plenty of track diehards who view this as a dark day for the sport, an athlete returning from a doping ban and earning a medal. But whether you believe Houlihan or not, you better get used to her being a factor again. She closed in 60.09 for her last 400 and 29.19 for her last 200 today and just kicked down the Olympic 1500m silver medalist. And Houlihan is not content to settle for just one indoor medal.

“I feel like I still have more to prove,” Houlihan said. “I feel like the best is yet to come.”

Whittni Morgan post-race

Morgan felt she let the race get away from herself a little over the last two laps, but finished an impressive 4th in her first world indoor final.

Men’s 60 hurdles: Grant Holloway makes it 72 in a row

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Holloway added three more wins to his incredible unbeaten streak in the 60m hurdles, stretching his career record to 72-0 and becoming the first man to win three straight world indoor titles (Allen Johnson won three as well, but not in a row). Holloway has now competed in eight global championships since turning pro out of the University of Florida in 2019, and his worst result in that span is an Olympic silver by .05 of a second:

Grant Holloway at major championships
2019 Doha: Gold (110 hurdles)
2021 Tokyo: Silver (110 hurdles)
2022 Belgrade: Gold (60 hurdles)
2022 Eugene: Gold (110 hurdles)
2023 Budapest: Gold (110 hurdles)
2024 Glasgow: Gold (60 hurdles)
2024 Paris: Gold (110 hurdles)
2025 Nanjing: Gold (60 hurdles)

It’s not just Holloway’s consistency that is impressive, but also his willingness to compete. Many other athletes of his stature treat the indoor season as a sideshow and aren’t committed to racing the biggest meets, year after year. Yet Holloway has shown up and made every world indoor, world outdoor, and Olympic team during his career and has excelled at all three meets.

Looking ahead to next year, Holloway said he plans to return to World Indoors but after that may move away from the hurdles after five straight years of championships in the 110 hurdles.

“It being an off year, I’m going to take the Christian Taylor approach [his fellow Gator who switched the triple jump for 400 hurdles in 2014], maybe go run a couple 400s, go run a couple 100s, 60s, 200s,” Holloway said.

If he’s looking to test himself in other events, would he consider running Grand Slam Track this year, where he could double in the 100 and 110 hurdles? Holloway said that was a firm no, saying he did not feel the “schedule and the system” were compatible with him getting the most out of himself in his primary event.

“I try to put myself in the best position to win for the 110 hurdles,” Holloway said. “Michael Johnson and the Grand Slam committee has reached out to me. Obviously I told both of them that it’s a great idea, I think it’s going to be very successful. But it’s not a great idea for Grant Holloway.”

Men’s 400: The USA goes 1-2-3

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Just before he stepped on the track for the world indoor 400-meter final, Chris Bailey turned to his American teammates, Brian Faust and Jacory Patterson and said, “Let’s make history.” In the 39-year history of the World Indoor Championships, no country had ever gone 1-2-3 in a men’s event. It is only recently that countries even had an opportunity to do so, with the introduction of wild-card spots for World Indoor Tour winners.

Faust won the World Indoor Tour this year, which gave the US three entries, and the Americans lived up to Bailey’s prediction on Saturday. Bailey got the win, passing Faust on the second lap to run 45.08 as Faust (45.47) and Patterson (45.54) joined him on the podium.

“Once I found out all three of us made the final, I was like, oh yeah, it’s definitely possible for us to sweep,” Bailey said. “I just wanted them to know I was there for them, they were there for me, having each other’s backs no matter what.”

This was an unlikely trio to record such an accomplishment. None of the three made an an individual NCAA outdoor final during their collegiate careers, and none currently has a shoe sponsor. Last year, all three ran at World Indoors, but Faust and Patterson were eliminated in the first round and Bailey got run down for the gold as anchor of Team USA’s 4×400. Bailey, Faust, and Patterson all found redemption in Nanjing.

“I was tremendously proud of them both, because last year they made it individually but didn’t make it past the first round,” Bailey said. “To leave with a medal this year? It’s amazing.”

Moving forward, Bailey, who was 6th at last year’s Olympics, has the best chance of earning a contract (Faust has still yet to break 45 seconds outdoors; Patterson’s outdoor pb is 44.81). Until then, he is going to cash in as best he can, and that begins with the first Grand Slam Track Meet in Kingston two weeks from now.

Talk about the action on our world-famous messageboard:

Shelby Houlihan: world silver medalist

• Another one of Kerr’s achievements equaled by Jakob
• Forgot just how good of a kick Aregawi has.
• SAM MF GILMAN
• Fisher, Hocker and Kerr would’ve won the 3k today.
• Would Ethan Strand have won World indoors 3K
• Looking at how Shelby beat Hull, a 3:50 runner, really makes me think how many medals would she have won
• LRC World Indoor Day 2 Thread