The fastest 400 meters anyone on Earth has run in 2026 belongs to a college junior from Gilbert, Arizona.
Jayden Davis of Arizona State crossed the line in 44.29 seconds at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California on April 18, setting the world-leading outdoor time of the season in the 400 metres and obliterating a Sun Devils program record that had stood for 58 years. The old mark — 44.49 — was set by Ron Freeman II in 1968, back when Lyndon Johnson was still in the White House.
It wasn't a fluke. Davis now holds the indoor and outdoor ASU program records in the event, after running 45.06 indoors in 2025 and 44.84 outdoors earlier in his career. On Saturday, he simply ran a different race than anyone else on the card.
Erasing 1968
Track fans love a record that refuses to die. Freeman's 44.49 sat at the top of the ASU list through the entire careers of Maurice Peoples (44.85, 1973), Herman Frazier (44.95, 1976), Howard Henley (44.92, 1981), and Lewis Banda (44.58, 2004). Justin Robinson got it down to 44.47 in 2023 — but that was an NCAA Championship mark, and Freeman's school record survived even that, because Robinson's time later got bumped by the bookkeeping.
Davis erased all of it in one afternoon at Hilmer Lodge Stadium. His 44.29 ranks No. 1 worldwide across all levels of competition this season — open, collegiate, or otherwise — and is a runaway leader in the NCAA. For reference, the world record is Wayde van Niekerk's 43.03 from Rio 2016; sub-44 territory has only ever been reached by a handful of athletes in history. Davis is knocking on that door as a 20-year-old with another outdoor season still ahead of him.
A sign of what's coming in Eugene
The NCAA outdoor track and field championships run through June in Eugene, and Davis now enters them as the overwhelming favorite in the 400. He also has company. Arizona State teammate Dubem Nwachukwu sits in the program's top five at 44.81, giving the Sun Devils one of the strongest one-two punches in the country.
On the women's side of Saturday's meet, Mizzou transfer Claudina Diaz cleared 1.81 m (5'11¼") to win the high jump — the sixth-best mark in ASU program history — and Taiwo Kudoro ran 52.44 in the 400m, good for 10th all-time in the program. The Sun Devils field the kind of roster that rewrites its own record book in a single weekend.
From Mountain Pointe to the top of the world
Davis grew up in Gilbert and ran for Mountain Pointe High School, where he also set the Arizona state record in the 400. He committed to ASU and stayed home — a choice that looks considerably more sensible today than it did three years ago. His progression has been steady rather than explosive: 45.06 indoors in 2025, 44.84 outdoors, now 44.29 with plenty of season left.
The next stop is the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, April 23–25, where Davis and his teammates will close out April against a deep East Coast field. After that, the calendar starts to matter: Big 12 championships, NCAA regionals, NCAA championships, and — if the ASU junior keeps running like this — the USATF Outdoor Championships and the World Championships outdoor season.
A 44.29 in April is the kind of time that used to show up in June, at the NCAA final, with a TV camera and a full stadium. Davis ran his two months early, on a normal Saturday, against no one in particular. That's usually the tell that something much bigger is coming.
