US breaks world short track 4x800m record

A United States quartet of Clay Pender, Luke Houser, Luciano Fiore and Sean Dolan took a second off the world short track 4x800-metre record* with their winning time of 7:10.29 at the Penn Classic in Philadelphia yesterday.

Their performance was a 1.01-second improvement on the previous mark of 7:11.30 set by another US squad in 2018 the rarely contested discipline.

The race was close in the early stages as the University of Pennsylvania’s home team led for the first leg with Joseph Socarras reaching the first exchange in 1:49.06, ahead of Pender (1:49.69).

World indoor 1500m bronze medallist Luke Houser then took up the running for the US team and gained the lead on the second of his four laps. Houser completed his leg in 1:47.47, building up a two-second lead and giving his team a shot at breaking the record.

Luciano Fiore extended their lead on the third leg thanks to his 1:47.35 split. By the time Sean Dolan took the baton for the final leg, the US quartet had a six-second lead. The NACAC U23 silver medallist extended that to 12 seconds, thanks to his 1:45.79 anchor leg, bringing the team home in 7:10.29.

The University of Pennsylvania finished a distant second in 7:22.43.

World Athletics