Michael Norman sets WR, photo by Kirby Lee for IAAF (copyright Kirby Lee)
World U20 200m champion Michael Norman clocked a world indoor record* of 44.52 to win the 400m at the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas, on Saturday (10).
The University of Southern California student had seen Auburn University’s Akeem Bloomfield clock a Jamaican indoor record of 44.86 in the first race of the two-heat final just moments before. 20-year-old Norman, contesting just his third indoor 400m race to date, breezed through the first lap in 21.33 and maintained his lead to cross the line in 44.52.
His winning time took 0.05 off the previous world indoor record set by Kerron Clement at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville.
Minutes after the men’s 400m final, Kendall Ellis won the women’s race in a North American indoor record of 50.34. Sydney McLaughlin then won the second heat of the two-race final in a world U20 record* of 50.36.
