Bailey leads US medal sweep in 400m in Nanjing

The United States pulled off the first ever men’s 1-2-3 at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing on Saturday as a composed Chris Bailey led from start to finish in the 400m.

Bailey had been the 2025 benchmark over two laps of the track, having run 44.70 this year followed by victory at what proved to be a combative US Indoors.

He was outside that mark at the line come the final with his effort of 45.08 but he was still a class apart from both his teammates and the rest of the world.

It was a first individual global title for the 24-year-old, who was sixth in the 400m final at the Paris Olympics before going on to seal 4x400m gold.

On the evidence of this final, a second gold of this championships looks a near dead cert unless any calamities arise come the changeovers in the event finale on Sunday.

The US had unashamedly made no secret of their desire for a sweep of the 400m and Brian Faust and Jacory Patterson both ran assured races to enter the home straight vying for silver and bronze behind their teammate.

Both grimaced in their final strides but Faust did enough to equal his personal best of 45.47 for the silver medal as Patterson finished in a time of 45.54 for the bronze.

It proved a historic 1-2-3, only the second time in the championships that a single nation has swept an individual podium as an Ethiopian trio of women did just that in Belgrade in 2022.

There was always going to be an entirely new-look podium in Nanjing with none of the medallists from Glasgow last year in this particular final. Defending champion Alexander Doom missed the entire indoor season with an adductor injury while silver medallist Karsten Warholm was absent from these championships. The bronze medallist from Glasgow, Jamaica’s Rusheen McDonald, failed to even make it out of the heats.

The only athlete who ever looked capable of unsettling the US 400m hegemony, Attila Molnar, finished fast to close the gap on Faust and Patterson. But ultimately it did not prove quite enough for the Hungarian who had picked up his first major title with his recent gold at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn earlier this month.

Matt Majendie for World Athletics