Track runner Foster Malleck eclipses Cam Levins's Canadian indoor 2,000m best
American Josh Hoey breaks 800m mark in Boston that stood for nearly 3 decades
More and more, Foster Malleck is showing he can hang with the world’s top runners.
The Kitchener, Ont., native was fifth on the track in the men’s 2,000m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.
Malleck’s time of four minutes 54.08 seconds eclipses Cam Levins’s 4:55.35 Canadian indoor best from 2014, but Athletics Canada doesn’t recognize the distance as a record.
“Awesome run, congratulations,” Levins, a three-time Olympian and the national record holder in the men’s marathon, said on Instagram.
Hobbs Kessler of the United States won Saturday in 4:48.79, crushing the world record of 4:49.99 by more than a second, while Calgary-born Grant Fisher followed in 4:49.48 to also sneak under the former world mark.
Great Britain’s Jake Wightman, who won the outdoor 1,500 at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, was fourth (4:53.69).
“Today gave me confidence that I’m able to run with the top guys,” the 24-year-old Malleck told Canadian Running magazine after the race, adding he’s striving for Kessler and Fisher’s level of success. Fisher, who was raised in Michigan, won bronze medals in the 5,000 and 10,000 at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
On Jan. 10, Malleck covered two kilometres in the opening leg of the 4x2 km relay at the recent world cross-country championships in 5:19, six seconds behind Kenya’s Reynold Cheruiyot, the reigning world 1,500 bronze medallist.
Outdoors last year, Malleck’s 3:32.38 performance in the 1,500 at La Classique de Montréal on Aug. 6 earned him a spot with Canada’s world championship team and placed him second among Canadian men all-time in the distance.
Kevin Sullivan’s national record of 3:31.71 has stood for 26 years. But in his world semifinal heat, Malleck was tripped up and fell on the second of four laps at Japan National Stadium in Tokyo and he didn't advance to the final.
Later in August, he captured outdoor gold in the 1,500 at the NACAC Championships in August. Malleck concluded his sixth and final season at Boston University last March with a third-place finish (3:54.42) in the mile at the NCAA indoor championships.
Malleck departed BU with school records indoors in the 1,609m mile (3:53.82) and 3,000 (7:50.96). Malleck turned pro last April and signed a contract with Under Armour Mission Run Baltimore Distance.
Malleck will return to BU next Saturday in the mile at the John Terrier Classic. He will be chasing the 3:36 qualifying standard for the March 20-22 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland.
His 1,500 personal best indoors is 3:38.16 from Feb. 21, 2025 in the DMR Challenge hosted by BU.
Hoey adds to breakout indoor campaign
American Josh Hoey shattered the men's 800-metre short-track world record on Saturday, clocking 1:42.50 seconds to break a mark that stood for more than 28 years.
Hoey took 0.17 seconds off the previous record of 1:42.67, set by Denmark's Wilson Kipketer at the World Indoor Championships in Paris in 1997.
It’s another highlight to a breakout indoor season that included a world 600 short-track best set in Boston seven weeks ago.
Already the second-fastest indoor 800 runner all-time after setting a North American mark of 1:43.24 at last year's U.S. Indoor Championships in New York, Hoey was paced by his brother Jaxson and surged clear late to win by more than two seconds.
Jaxson led him through 200 metres in 24.81 and 400 in 50.21 before stepping aside, with Hoey passing 600 in 1:16.19 and holding on until the line.
"We did a lot of pacing work," Hoey was quoted as saying by World Athletics. "Just kind of kept steadily improving, taking it week-by-week, block-by-block, and we were able to make this work."
Earlier on the card, American Hobbs Kessler set a 2000m short-track world best of 4:48.79 to beat the previous mark of 4:49.99 set by Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele almost 19 years ago.
Calgary-born distance runner Grant Fisher, the world short-track 3,000 record-holder, finished second in 4:49.48.
With files from Reuters
