World indoor 400m champion Amber Anning talks through the steps that have taken her to the highest level – and outlines her ambition to seize every opportunity in 2026.
Throughout an athlete’s career, there will always be defining moments; pivotal decisions or notable events that lead to fundamental change. For Amber Anning, leaving the UK in 2019 to study at Louisiana State University (LSU) was a significant first step, but it was her 2022 switch to the University of Arkansas – driven by her desire to improve over 400m – that proved transformational, leading to multiple NCAA titles and British records, two Olympic relay bronze medals and, most recently, world indoor 400m gold.
“Track hasn’t been exciting for me over the last couple of years,” she told AW in 2023. “Now I’m around people who have similar goals and it pushes you to want greatness.”
That’s not to say she didn’t enjoy herself at LSU – “I probably had a little too much fun,” she laughs – but she was the only 400m runner on the team. Arkansas, by contrast, had multiple athletes making major finals.
“For me to reach that next level and progress, Arkansas was the right move,” says the 25-year-old. “Coach [Chris] Johnson didn’t sugarcoat anything. He was very honest. He said: ‘You’re going to work hard here. We’re going to push you. Not every day will be glamorous, but I strongly believe that you’ll achieve what you want.’”
Anning ran 50.68 at the 2023 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Indoor Championships, a massive breakthrough after “struggling to break 52 seconds”. Less than a year later she ran 22.60 to smash Katharine Merry’s 25-year-old British indoor 200m record (22.83) before ending her collegiate indoor career as 2024 NCAA 400m champion.
That summer, having dipped under 50 seconds for the first time with 49.51 at the SEC Outdoor Championships, she went on to make history as part of Arkansas’ “Fantastic Four”. The record-breaking quartet of Anning, plus Jamaican record-holder Nickisha Pryce and USA duo Kaylyn Brown and Rosey Effiong, Olympic and world indoor 4 x 400m gold medallists respectively, dominated the two major conferences and became the first college team to place first to fourth individually at the NCAA Outdoor Championships (Anning ran 49.59 for third). In the 4 x 400m relay – her final collegiate race – the quartet spectacularly broke their own NCAA record and went fourth on the world all-time list with 3:17.96.
While Anning’s move to Arkansas had been a conscious decision to improve as an athlete, graduating in 2024 represented an unconscious change and a fresh start. At the Paris Olympic Games – where she signed her first professional contract with Nike – she won two relay bronze medals and finished fifth in the 400m final in a British record of 49.29. She also joined Mary Rand (1964) as only the second British woman to break three national records at a single Games.
Seven months later she claimed her first global title, winning gold at the 2025 World Indoor Championships in China, a mentally and physically demanding achievement following her disqualification at the European Indoors earlier that month.
Building towards the World Championships in Tokyo in September, Anning recorded two more sub-50 performances (49.96 in Paris and 49.75 in Zurich). She then reinforced her reputation as a “championship performer”, producing two of the three fastest times of her career in Japan with 49.38 in the semi-final and 49.36 for fifth in the final. She now holds the top three places on the British all-time list.
“The biggest factor in my success was staying in Arkansas with Coach after graduation and training with a group of such talented 400m women who continue to push me, both on and off the track,” says the Brighton & Hove AC athlete, who was previously coached by the late Lloyd Cowan MBE.
“While it was amazing to have that group in school, turning pro allowed me to be more intentional with everything – my eating, my training and my recovery – and I didn’t have to rush off after sessions to finish coursework. That definitely paid dividends in how I performed.
“Coming off the Olympics, it also gave me a lot of confidence. I wanted to keep everything pretty similar to how it was in college, so it was a good set-up for me.”
With greater belief in herself and a growing international profile, Anning is increasingly focused on impact beyond performance. She speaks openly about supporting the next generation and creating better structures for women in sport, whether that’s discussing taboo issues or motivating them to try athletics for the first time.
She has taken inspiration from athletes including Allyson Felix, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Faith Kipyegon and British team-mate Bianca Williams, who have returned to the track stronger after becoming mothers. “Motherhood is so beautiful, and the fact they’ve been able to come back to elite-level sport is incredible,” she says, while in a recent panel discussion at Nike’s “After Dark Tour”, she joined Paula Radcliffe, Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter-Bell to discuss progress in women’s sport, from kit design to research.
“These are the discussions I’d love to keep having,” she says; “in particular around education on periods and their impact on training and performance, and what we need to keep competing at the highest level. I’ve been inspired by the generosity of British athletes to me, and now I want to give something back.”
Mentored by Olympic and world champion Christine Ohuruogu, Anning is already delivering on that promise. When she signed with Nike she made “an unusual request” to include ring-fenced support for the Lloyd Cowan Bursary which provides annual grants to qualified coaches and unfunded athletes aged 16-23 who are facing financial barriers while pursuing developmental opportunities in athletics. “I wanted to honour Lloyd and give recipients access to Nike kit and equipment to make their journeys slightly easier,” she explains. To date, more than 200 athletes and coaches have benefited from her support.
In the short term, her focus remains on performance; she loves indoor athletics – no adverse weather conditions, a more intimate environment and the thrill of getting to the break – and she’s aiming to defend her world indoor title in Poland next month, as well as targeting Nicola Sanders’ British indoor record of 50.02, a mark that has stood since 2007. Anning doesn’t have to look far for inspiration, either, having seen her training partner Bella Whittaker run a US indoor record of 49.24 in 2025.
Positive change is happening, and this summer – an exciting one for British athletes with two major home championships – could provide yet another series of defining moments in Anning’s career as she also bids to go quicker over one lap outdoors.
“I’ve been running roughly the same times over 400m for the last two years and I need to make that transition,” she says. “The event has moved on; 47 seconds is now the gold standard, so that’s what we have to work towards. I’ve run enough 49s. I want to move into the 48s and I want to push the British record as low as I possibly can.
“It’s a summer full of opportunities for me to do that and winning gold at the Europeans in Birmingham would be the icing on the cake. I’ll have my family and friends in the stands, so if I was able to come away with 400m gold and then another in the 4 x 400m, it would be very special.”
