WASHINGTON, Feb 15, 2026 (V7N) - American athletics prodigy Cooper Lutkenhaus shattered the world junior indoor 800-meters record on Saturday, clocking 1 minute 44.03 seconds at the Sound Running meet in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

The 17-year-old Texan won the invitational event by 0.70 seconds ahead of Penn State’s Handal Roban, becoming the sixth-fastest athlete indoors in 800m history. Lutkenhaus erased the under-20 world record of 1:44.35 set in January 2000 by Russian Yuriy Borzakovskiy, who later won Olympic gold in Athens in 2004.

Lutkenhaus had already made headlines last year as runner-up at the US championships in Eugene, Oregon, earning a berth at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. His latest performance cements his status as one of the brightest young talents in middle-distance running.

The Winston-Salem meet also saw Paris Olympic 1,500m champion Cole Hocker win the mile in 3:45.94, with fellow American Cooper Teare second in 3:50.49. Hocker’s time was the second-fastest indoor mile ever recorded, just behind Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s world record of 3:45.14 set in France last year.

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