World Athletics Indoor Championships: Neil Gourley & Hunter Bell win medals for GB
Harry Poole
BBC Sport journalist
Great Britain’s Neil Gourley and Georgia Hunter Bell won 1500m medals on the final day of the World Athletics Indoor Championships in China.
Team captain Gourley took silver behind Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who added his first world 1500m title to the 3,000m gold he won on Saturday.
In a women’s final dominated by Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, Olympic bronze medallist Hunter Bell ran a personal-best three minutes 59.84 seconds for bronze.
It took GB’s total medal haul in Nanjing to four, following golds for Jeremiah Azu in the men’s 60m and Amber Anning in the women’s 400m.
Gourley closely tracked strong favourite Ingebrigtsen, who won in 3:38.79, throughout the race to clock 3:39.07. American Luke Houser was third.
Behind Tsegay’s solo run to a second world indoor 1500m title, ahead of fellow Ethiopian Diribe Welteji, Hunter Bell had enough to hold off Australian Georgia Griffith as she bounced back from missing out on the European Indoors podium two weeks ago.
‘If you can’t beat him, join him’
Gourley’s only previous international medal was European indoor silver in 2023.
Disappointed to miss out on the medals at those championships this month, the 30-year-old executed his tactic of shadowing Ingebrigtsen’s moves perfectly.
“It feels really good. A couple of weeks ago I came away really disappointed with the European Indoors race and I came here with a point to prove, just to myself,” Gourley told BBC Sport.
“It was a case of ‘if you can’t beat him, join him’. It meant I fed off his momentum. I just left a little too much to do in the home straight to catch him.”
Showman Ingebrigtsen was denied by Britons Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman in his previous two high-profile bids for a world 1500m title – a rare gap on his extensive list of honours, which now features 19 international golds.
But the 24-year-old completed his bid for double gold to replicate the European indoor double he achieved for a third consecutive time a fortnight ago.
‘This feels like redemption’
It was at these championships 12 months ago when Hunter Bell made her debut on the international stage, hinting at the progress yet to come by finishing fourth in Glasgow.
Such has been her improvement since rediscovering her love of running during lockdown – five years after quitting the sport – her failure to make the European podium as the overwhelming favourite for gold brought massive disappointment.
The 31-year-old bounced back to make her second global podium and end her indoor season on a high, remaining focused as Tsegay bolted clear from the off.
“This medal absolutely feels like a redemption,” Hunter Bell said.
“I’m just proud of how I came back. This medal means a lot. I just want to get as many medals as possible.”
