March 23 (Reuters) – Cooper Lutkenhaus became the youngest athlete to win a men’s individual title at the World Indoor Championships when the American 17-year-old took gold in the 800 metres in Poland on Sunday.
Lutkenhaus came home ahead of Belgium’s Eliott Crestan to win in a time of 1:44.24. The previous record for the youngest male champion was held by Ethiopian Mohammed Aman, who was 18 years and 61 days when he won gold in the 800 in 2012.
“I came out here thinking I probably wasn’t the favourite, but any time I feel like I can step into a final I have a chance to win,” Lutkenhus said.
“Maybe it came from confidence or maybe from being too young but I really wanted to try to make a defining move. I believed in that on the third lap – I just wanted to try to take it from there.”
Lutkenhaus’s win put the U.S. on top of medal table on five golds with Britain in second with their best haul at the event with four.
(Reporting by Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru;Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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