Los Angeles: American Michael Norman clocked a world indoor record of 44.52sec on Saturday to win the men’s 400m at the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas.

Norman, a University of South Carolina student and the world under-20 200m champion, had seen Auburn University’s Akeem Bloomfield clock a Jamaican indoor record of 44.86 in the first race of the two-heat final at the national collegiate championships.

The 20-year-old responded by breaking the previous record of 44.57sec set by Kerron Clement on March 12, 2005 at Fayetteville, Arkansas, in that year’s NCAA championship meeting.