As the outdoor season is starting up the first Diamond League meeting featured several strong 800m runners. Stars such as Marco Arop, Djamel Sedjati and in particular World Champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi were not in Shanghai, but with Ben Pattison, Brandon Miller, Wyclife Kinyamal, Mark English, Adrián Ben and Yanis Meziane the entry list still featured no fewer than six athletes who had broken 1"44 already.

With no clear favourite this race was always going to be a close one. After a moderately fast first lap (51.12) many athletes were still bunched together going into the final straight. Boyes and Miller were leading, with Meziane and Haingura close behind. English at this point was way back in seventh position. But he kept his form and moved steadily forward. Up front Boyes was losing ground and Haingura took over from the inside. But English kept sprinting, and as Haingura already raised his hand to celebrate English dipped for the line and beat the Botswanan by just 0.04 seconds.

At thirty three years old Mark English was easily the oldest man in the field, and yet he beat all his younger rivals. Last year he ran several PB's, and now he has won a Diamond League race for the first time in his life. Mark certainly seems to be getting better with age!

    Result:
 1  Mark English           IRL   1:43.85
 2  Kethobogile Haingura   BOT   1:43.89
 3  Brandon Miller         USA   1:44.00
 4  Luke Boyes             AUS   1:44.16
 5  Yanis Meziane          FRA   1:44.17
 6  Ben Pattison           GBR   1:44.19
 7  Adrián Ben             ESP   1:44.45
 8  Wyclife Kinyamal       KEN   1:44.61
 9  Marino Bloudek         CRO   1:45.02
10  Xi Xiaoheng            CHN   1:45.62
11  Liu Dezhu              CHN   1:45.79

This was alway going to be a fiercely contested final. Could Elliott Crestan, after winning bronze in 2024 and silver last year get gold this time around? Or would Mohamed Attaoui strike with his stunning acceleration, keeping in mind that passing people is harder indoors and his tactics had to be just right? Or could young Cooper Lutkenhaus live up to the expectations - at only seventeen did he already have the stamina for three races in just over two days?

As expected Crestan took the lead with Bol following, while Attaoui was way off the pace - a bit too far perhaps. After two laps they clocked 51.91, quite fast, with Crestan leading, Lutkenhaus now at his shoulder and Attaoui at the back. During lap three Lutkenhaus took over the lead while Attaoui moved into fourth. Final lap, and Bol tried to get past Crestan, but couldn't do it, and Attaoui sneaked into third on the inside. On the final straight Lutkenhaus held off a final dash by Crestan, while Attaoui had no more accelerations left and had to settle for bronze.

And so at seventeen years and three months Cooper Lutkenhaus has become the youngest World Indoor Champion ever. Not just on the 800m, but on any discipline. What will we see next from this amazing youngster?

    Result:
 1  Cooper Lutkenhaus      USA   1:44.24 
 2  Eliott Crestan         BEL   1:44.38 
 3  Mohamed Attaoui        ESP   1:44.66 
 4  Peter Bol              AUS   1:45.14 
 5  Marino Bloudek         CRO   1:45.31 
 6  Allon Tatsunami Clay   JPN   1:45.42 

Last indoor season Josh Hoey had improved himself to 1:43.24, the second fastest indoor time behind Wilson Kipketer's World Record of 1:42.67. Kipketer ran that stunning record in the World Indoor Championship final, all the way back in 1997. For 29 years it had never been seriously under threat.

A few weeks ago in Boston Josh had ran a World Best on the rarely run 600m indoor, and felt in great shape. He had announced that beating Wilson's mark was his next goal. And so he returned to Boston and paced by his older brother Jaxson the first 400m was covered in 50.21, right on schedule. Josh was on his own from there on, but mentioned afterwards that the support from the public had urged him on.

And he did it! The new World Indoor Record now stands at 1:42.50. Josh said that he felt he was closer to the beginning rather than the end of the journey. It's only January and the season already promises to be very exciting.

    Result:
 1  Josh Hoey               USA   1:42.50
 2  Filip Ostrowski         POL   1:44.68
 3  Ryan Clarke             NED   1:44.72
 4  Hiroki Minamoto         JPN   1:52.08
 -  Jaxson Hoey             USA   DNF

When Emmanuel Wanyonyi took an early lead it was clear that a very fast final was on the cards, and a first lap completed in 49.27 seconds showed just how fast it was.

Wanyonyi kept going, and although Marco Arop briefly came level with him, and Djamel Sedjati sprinted to the line Wanyonyi managed to hang on and took the gold medal.

It's the second global title for this incredibly talented youngster. Only 21 years old, he is. Who knows how many more titles he can add?

Full reports of all WC 800m races

    Result:
 1  Emmanuel Wanyonyi      KEN  1:41.86
 2  Djamel Sedjati         ALG  1:41.90
 3  Marco Arop             CAN  1:41.95
 4  Cian McPhillips        IRL  1:42.15
 5  Mohamed Attaoui        ESP  1:42.21
 6  Max Burgin             GBR  1:42.29
 7  Navasky Anderson       JAM  1:42.76
 8  Tshepiso Masalela      BOT  1:42.77