Canada’s Christopher Morales Williams clocked 44.49 to win the 400m at the SEC Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Saturday (24), World Athletics.

If ratified, it means the 19-year-old would have broken the world indoor record of 44.57 set by USA’s Kerron Clement in Fayetteville in 2005, as well as the 44.52 run by Michael Norman in Texas in 2018, which could not be ratified as a world record.

Morales Williams took 0.9 off his previous best set at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational earlier this month and won the race by more than a second.

The University of Georgia sophomore had won his heat on Friday in 45.58, which was the second-fastest performance of his career so far.

His performance came just a week after Femke Bol improved her world indoor record over the same distance to 49.24 in Apeldoorn last Sunday.

Morales Williams formed part of Canada’s world U20 bronze medal-winning 4x400m team in Cali in 2022 and claimed Pan American U20 400m silver one year later.

He ran an indoor PB of 46.05 on his 400m season opener in Boston in January and improved to 45.39 in Clemson before his record-breaking run in Arkansas.