Amber Anning (born 18 November 2000)'Amber Anning'. Arkansas Razorbacks, undated. Retrieved 22 March 2025 is an English sprinter. A double Olympic medalist, she is the 2025 World Athletics Indoor champion over 400 metres. She holds the British record for 400 metres, 49.29 seconds, which she recorded when finishing fifth in the women's 400 metres at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

She won two bronze medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay and mixed 4 × 400 metres relay.

Anning is the British record holder indoors over 200 m and was part of British teams that won medals in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay events at the 2019 European Indoor Championships and 2023 World Championship. She also won medals at the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games and the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships. Anning competed in college athletics for LSU Tigers and Arkansas Razorbacks.

Personal life Anning was born in London the eldest of three sisters. She spent her early years in Hove and Australia. As a child, she participated in netball, swimming and athletics before choosing to specialise in the latter.

She attended Roedean School and Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College. In 2020, Anning began studying at Louisiana State University in the United States on a scholarship. In 2022, she transferred to the University of Arkansas. She graduated in 2024 with a degree in Advertising and Public Relations with minors in Journalism, Strategic Media and Psychology.

Career Anning has competed for Brighton & Hove Athletic Club since she was nine years old. From the age of 16, until his unexpected death in 2021, she was coached by Lloyd Cowan. Anning broke the British under-15 300 metres record running 38.73 seconds and was the first, and to date, the first British under-15 to run sub 39 seconds. The previous record holder was Dina Asher-Smith.

At the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games, Anning finished third in the 400 metres event and was part of the England team that finished second in the mixed 4 × 400 metres relay. She missed the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships due to injury.

Aged 17, she won a bronze medal over 200 m at the British Indoor Championships. A year later, at 18, she came second over 400 m at the British Indoor Championships, running 53s dead to break the nearly 50-year-old British U20 Indoor record of Marilyn Neufville. With this she auto-qualified for the individual 400 m and the British relay squad, which won the silver medal in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay at the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships. In the same year, Anning also finished second in the 400 metres event at the 2019 European Athletics U20 Championships, and anchored the British team to victory in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay competition at the championships.

In 2020, she started competing in college athletics for LSU Tigers, where she was coached by Dennis Shaver. In August 2022, she transferred to Arkansas Razorbacks.

At the 2023 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, she was part of the Arkansas relay team that set the fastest women's indoor 4 × 400 metres relay time in history of 3:21.75. Anning's time on the first leg was the fifth fastest ever. Anning was a member of the British team that finished third in the women's 4 × 400 metres relay event at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. It was her first senior World Championships, and she ran the second leg of the race splitting 49.70 seconds in the heat and 49.82 seconds in the final.

In January 2024, Anning broke Katharine Merry's 25-year-old 200 m British Indoor record, clocking 22.60 at Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA.

In March 2024, she won the 400 m at the 2024 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships in Boston in 50.79 seconds, leading her teammates Nickisha Pryce and Rosey Effiong to an historic podium as Arkansas became the first women's program to have a 1–2–3 finish in the 400 at the NCAA Indoor meet. The Arkansas Razorbacks, led for the first time by Head Coach, Chris 'Captain' Johnson, also won the women's team title for the second year in a row. In May 2024, Anning ran 49.51 seconds over 400 m at the SEC Track and Field Championships, to move to third place on the British All-Time list, behind Christine Ohuruogu and Kathy Smallwood. At the 2024 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships Anning won the bronze medal over 400 m, running 49.59 seconds, in an historic race in which the Razorbacks achieved a 'super sweep' of the top four places. In the women's 4 × 400 metres relay, Anning, Effiong, Pryce and Kaylyn Brown set a collegiate record time of 3:17.96 to win the event for Arkansas. Anning became a fully professional athlete in 2024 after graduating from Arkansas.

Later in 2024, Anning became the British 400 metres champion after winning the title at the 2024 British Athletics Championships and qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics as a result. She was part of the mixed 4 × 400 team which won a bronze medal in a new national record of 3:08.01. In the individual event, she reached the final and finished fifth in 49.23 seconds, a national record and only three hundredths of a second from bronze.

At the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Anning was disqualified in the 400 m heats due to lane infringements. Later in the championships she was part of the British 4 × 400 metres relay team which won a silver medal. Later that month at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Anning became the first British woman to win the 400 metres indoor title.

She ran a season's best 49.75 seconds for fifth in the women's 400m at the Diamond League Final in Zurich on 28 August. She was selected as part of the British team for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

Achievements Circuit performances

Personal bests TypeDistanceTime (s)Wind (m/s)VenueDateNotesOutdoor100 metres11.49 +0.2Tempe, United States19 March 2022200 metres22.66 -0.5Gainesville, United States9 May 2024300 metres37.79Loughborough, Great Britain1 September 2017400 metres49.29Saint-Denis, France9 August 2024Long jump5.57 m0.0Reading, Great Britain28 June 2015Triple jump11.65 m -1.0Ashford, Great Britain16 August 2015Indoor60 metres7.45Fayetteville, United States5 February 2022200 metres 22.60Fayetteville, United States26 January 2024300 metres 39.37Sheffield, Great Britain13 February 2016400 metres 50.43Fayetteville, United States24 February 2024800 metres 2:05.05Fayetteville, United States12 January 2024Team eventsOutdoor4 × 100 metres relay42.45Eugene, United States6 June 20244 × 200 metres relay1:31.11Austin, United States30 March 20244 × 400 metres relay3:17.96Eugene, United States8 June 20244 × 400 metres relay mixed3:08.01Saint-Denis, France3 August 2024Distance medley relay11:02.45Austin, United States25 March 2022Indoor4 × 400 metres relay 3:21.75Albuquerque, United States11 March 2023Distance medley relay 10:49.14Fayetteville, United States17 February 2023

International competitions 2017Commonwealth Youth GamesNassau, Bahamas3rd400 m53.682ndMixed 4 × 400 m relay3:25.452019European Indoor ChampionshipsGlasgow, Great Britain17th (h)400 m 53.262nd4 x 400 m relay 3:29.55European U20 Championships Borås, Sweden2nd400 m52.18 1st4 × 400 m relay3:33.07 2021European U23 ChampionshipsTallinn, Estonia−200 m2023World ChampionshipsBudapest, Hungary3rd4 × 400 m relay3:21.04 2024Olympic GamesParis, France3rdMixed 4 × 400 m relay3:08.01 5th400 m49.29 3rd4 × 400 m relay3:19.72 2025European Indoor ChampionshipsApeldoorn, Netherlands –400 m2nd4 × 400 m relay3:24.89World Indoor ChampionshipsNanjing, China 1st400 m50.60World ChampionshipsTokyo, Japan5th400 m49.36 2026European ChampionshipsBirmingham, Great Britain6th (sf)1400 m49.96 1Did not start in the final.

References

External links

Amber Anning at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics (archived)