Despite coming into the 2025 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing with a modest season's best and lingering doubts about her form, Devynne Charlton once again proved she thrives when it matters most. The Bahamian hurdler delivered a gritty performance to successfully defend her 60m hurdles world title on Sunday, clocking a season-best 7.72 seconds to hold off a world-class field.
Charlton, who made history last year by setting the world record of 7.65 at the 2024 World Indoor Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, had entered Nanjing with a relatively slow 7.99 season’s best from February in France. But she rose to the occasion in the Chinese capital, sharpening her form across three rounds—7.94 in the heats, 7.82 in the semis, and 7.72 in the final to secure back-to-back global indoor titles.
Her margin of victory was razor-thin, edging out Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji—who had posted a world-leading 7.67 to win the European Championships—with a time of 7.73. Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent also produced her best of the season, finishing third in 7.74.
For Charlton, who admitted her season had been far from ideal, the victory was as much about mindset as it was about execution.
“Heading into the race, I kind of had a second reality where I’m just like, I’m not where I want to be or prefer to be physically,” Charlton told media upon her return to the Bahamas. “So I kind of had to rely on my mentality, my headspace, my instinct.”
That mental fortitude was on full display in the final, where she showed poise and control despite not being the pre-race favourite. Kambundji's recent 7.67 had placed her second on the all-time list, just behind Charlton’s own world record, and made her the woman to beat.
“Going into the call room for the final race, I was just like, I have to do what I know how to do and execute a good ace. I think I knew that’s what it would have taken,” she said.
“Seeing my name pop up was kind of surreal,” she continued. “I’m still in a little bit of disbelief because I’m just looking at how my season went versus how the race turned out.”
Charlton’s honesty about the self-doubt and uncertainty she carried into the meet only adds weight to her achievement.
“You have to be kind of a little bit delusional, thinking that I could go in, run the way I was, and come out world champion,” she concluded.
That "delusion," as she calls it, is part of what makes Charlton one of the toughest competitors in global sprint hurdling. And with the outdoor season and the World Championships in Tokyo now on the horizon, she’s once again positioned herself as the woman to beat.
Her title defence in Nanjing wasn’t just about repeating history—it was about proving that even when the numbers aren’t perfect, championship heart and racing instinct can still lead you to gold.
Photos: World Athletics