Brannigan Strikes Gold With Championship Record-Breaking 1500-Meter Run

KOBE, JAPAN – After taking silver at last year’s world championships, Paralympic champion Michael Brannigan (Northport, New York) left nothing to chance in today’s men’s 1500-meter T20 race, leading Team USA with a convincing victory on the penultimate day of the 2024 Para Athletics World Championships in Kobe, Japan.

Brannigan waited until there were about 500 meters remaining in his race before making his move, surging to the front of the field and holding his lead for the final lap en route to a new championship record.

His time of 3:51.71 broke his own championship record of 3:53.05, set in London in 2017. After a tight race until the last lap, the 2016 Paralympic champion beat out the rest of the field by nearly four seconds.

“I feel excited and happy,” Brannigan said. “I felt good and stayed in control, ran my own race, and I executed. I feel really proud of myself, and I believe I can do it in Paris.”

It is the fourth world championship title and first since 2017 for Brannigan, who is looking to qualify for his third Paralympic Games this summer.

In throws action, Paralympic bronze medalist Justin Phongsavanh (Des Moines, Iowa) threw a season’s best 29.14-meter best attempt to take fourth place in the men’s javelin F54 competition.

“It was a great learning experience today,” Phongsavanh said. “It’s my second time getting fourth at a worlds, so that stings. I’m probably going to lose some sleep over this one, but lessons were learned that are going to be applied to Paris.”

Phongsavanh, who holds the current world record in the event at 33.29, said he’s confident in what he needs to improve upon before Paris.

“This was a wake up call,” he said. “I had the world lead coming into this event, and that little big of edge you think you have, it’s not real. You have to show up when it matters. Everything in training has been looking great, and today I’d call an outlier. The speed is there, where I want the javelin is there, now it’s just the pulling of the pole through the throw. Instead of getting stuck behind, we’re going straight through the javelin.”

Paralympian Erin Kerkhoff (Coralville, Iowa) followed up a podium performance in the 200-meter T13 by qualifying for tomorrow’s final of the women’s 400-meter T13. Her time of 57.06 placed her second in her preliminary heat and third overall among qualifiers.

After struggling with track marking issues, Team USA’s mixed 4x100-meter universal relay team of Noah Malone (Fishers, Indiana), Brittni Mason (Cleveland, Ohio), Taylor Swanson (Spokane, Washington) and Robert Hunt (Spokane, Washington) received a disqualification in their preliminary heat due to an illegal hand-off. Mason and Swanson return to the track tomorrow for the women’s 200-meter T47 and T37, respectively.

Competition resumes tomorrow at 9 a.m. local time at the Universiade Memorial Stadium in Kobe. All sessions will be streamed live on the Paralympics YouTube Channel and the World Para Athletics Facebook page. For updates and results from Team USA, follow U.S. Paralympics Track & Field on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Kristen Gowdy at Kristen.Gowdy@usopc.org.

Team USA Medals – May 23

GOLD
Mikey Brannigan – men’s 1500-meter T20

Other Team USA Results
Justin Phongsavanh – 4th, men’s javelin F54

Erin Kerkhoff – finals, women’s 400-meter T13

Team USA (Malone, Mason, Swanson, Hunt) – DQ, mixed 4x100-meter universal relay heats