BOSTON, (Jan 24) – Americans Hobbs Kessler and Josh Hoey shattered respective world records at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix opening World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting of the year in Boston on Saturday (24).
Kessler broke the indoor world 2000-meter record with a commanding run, clocking 4:48.79 seconds, while his countryman Josh Hoey added another world record performance to his name this season, breaking a long-standing 800m world record with a super run at the same meet.
In the men’s 2000m, the 22-year-old Kessler surged ahead of compatriot Grant Fisher on the final lap to take control of the race and never looked back on his way to eclipsing Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekele’s 2007 record of 4:49.99. The American, who won the road mile world title in 2023 and took bronze in the 1,500m at the 2024 World Indoors, also broke the American record, set just a day earlier by Olympic champion Cole Hocker. Hocker had run 4:52.92 at the Hokie Invitational in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Friday.
Fisher, a double Olympic bronze medalist and indoor 3,000m world record holder, finished second on Saturday in 4:49.48—also under the previous U.S. mark—after briefly challenging Kessler until the final lap. Belgium’s Pieter Sisk took third in 4:52.41, with Britain’s 2022 world 1,500m champion Jake Wightman fourth in 4:53.69.
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Another USA standout, Josh Hoey, was also in world record form in the men’s 800m at the meeting. Paced through the opening 400m at 50.02 seconds by his brother Jaxson Hoey, Josh broke away to power to a superb 1:42.50 to break the long-standing 1:42.67 previous indoor record, set by Wilson Kipketer of Denmark at the World Indoor Championships in Paris in 1997.
The reigning World Indoor 800m champion also owns the world short track 600m best, having produced a 1:12.84 in Boston in December 2025.
In the women’s 3,000m, American Elle St. Pierre, the world indoor gold medalist in 2024, claimed victory in a world-leading 8:26.54, ahead of Australia’s Olympic silver medalist Jessica Hull, who ran a personal best 8:27.03 for second.
