World Athletics Championships 2025: Portugal’s Nader wears 1500m crown; Katie over the Moon with pole vault gold

Even avid track fans might have checked their programs when that blur of red and green on the far outside started streaking to the lead with the finish line in sight.

This year’s out-of-nowhere winner of the men’s 1500m hails from Portugal. It’s Isaac Nader, who ran five wide down the stretch on Wednesday night to pull what can only be described as a stunner at the World Athletics Championships, even against a field that lost three of its top contenders long before the finish line.

Nader rallied from fifth to first over the last 100m to edge 2022 champion Jake Wightman of Britain, who also wasn’t expected to contend, by .02 seconds. The winning time: a leisurely 3 minutes, 34.10 seconds.

“There were 14 men in the final, and I thought it was possible to win,” Nader said. “I told myself before the race that I was either going to finish 14, or I was going to finish first.”

Kenya’s Reynold Cheruiyot finished third while the favorite, Niels Laros of The Netherlands, faded at the end and wound up fifth. Another top contender, 2023 world champion Josh Kerr, pulled up lame in the third lap and finished the race nearly 30 seconds off the pace.

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The 26-year-old Nader came in ranked eighth in the world and had never placed in a major championship. He was a 50-1 longshot.

“It’s the same story every year in the 15,” Wightman said. “Whoever goes in the favorite always seems to have a bit too much of a target. I don’t think one person would have expected Nader to win that.”

Nader’s biggest win up to now was in the Dream Mile in Oslo in June — a race that didn’t feature any of the top names in four-lap races.

That probably explained Nader’s look of pure shock when he looked up at the scoreboard and saw he was first, barely ahead of Wightman, who stumbled and hit the deck at the finish but came up short.

Asked to describe in Portuguese his feelings about coming from nowhere to become his country’s first winner in one of track’s most electric — and unpredictable — events, Nader said: “Inacreditável!”

Unbelievable!

American pole vaulter Katie Moon had one last try to clear her Season Best and, with that, capture her third straight world title. She nailed it, clearing 4.90m to snatch away the title from compatriot Sandi Morris.

Moon’s chest brushed the bar on her way over and it wobbled back and forth, but didn’t fall.

“It definitely wasn’t an immediate moment of elation, because I wasn’t sure,” Moon said. “But I’d seen it settle enough that I knew it wasn’t coming down. I obviously would’ve loved to have cleared it without touching it, but I’ll take it.”

Moon has now collected four of the last five major titles — the only miss coming at the Paris Olympics where she took silver.

Morris, the only American woman to clear 5m outdoors, said this was a bit of a heartbreaker, but not a tragedy.

It’s was her fifth major silver medal — four at Worlds and one at the 2016 Rio Olympics. She has never won a gold and, this time, finished second despite her own Season Best (4.85m) that led Moon to move the bar up and go for the win.

“It’s tough when I made ’85,’ and we moved the bar up and it put pressure on everyone,” Morris said. “But I knew it wasn’t in the bag.”

‘Excited for more’

The sprinters returned to the track for the 200m heats. For many of them — Noah Lyles, Kenny Bednarek, Letsile Tebogo — this felt routine.

For 17-year-old Gout Gout of Australia, anything but.

Gout, who has junior records to his name and is already drawing comparisons to Usain Bolt, used a high knee kick to finish third in his heat and advance to Thursday’s semifinals.

His run of 20.23 seconds was good enough to make it through. He will probably need to break 20 to run in the final; his two career sub-20 runs have been wind-aided.

“Obviously, I was a bit nervous. It’s a great experience being out here running against the big boys,” Gout said. “I’m excited for more.”

Published on Sep 17, 2025