Canadian clocks championship record of 44.76 to beat Khaleb McRae of the US as Lurdes Gloria Manuel of Czechia wins the women's 400m under the new format in Toruń.

Christopher Morales Williams proved a deserving winner of the men's 400m title at the World Indoor Championships in Toruń on Saturday (March 21).

The Canadian powered past world record-holder Khaleb McRae of the United States in the home straight and clocked a championship record of 44.76, but fans were left debating the merits of the new format for these "400m finals" which involved two races and the quickest times earning the medals.

The rule change has been caused by sprinters seemingly having little chance of they were drawn in the tight inside lanes. It is the same reason that caused the 200m to be scrapped from major championships a few years ago.

So instead of one final with six athletes, we saw two finals with four athletes in each race.

As it turned out, though, it resembled a B final followed by an A-race with all the medallists coming in the second race.

Chris Robinson of the United States won the first race in 45.55 ahead of European record-holder Attila Molnar of Hungary, although they didn't quite know how to celebrate before being ushered to bean bags where they were asked to wait while the second race took place.

The second race then saw Morales Williams hang behind McRae before coming past him in the final metres. In third, Jereem Richards of Trinidad & Tobago clocked 45.39, which earned him the bronze medal.

Lurdes Gloria Manuel of Czechia took gold in the women's 400m after winning the 'second final' in 50.76. Manuel ran a fast first 200m of 23.27 to get into pole position ahead of Henriette Jaeger of Norway and then completed the second lap in a painful 27.49 to win as Jaeger stumbled on the kerb coming into the home straight and finished fourth as Wadeline Venlogh of Haiti came through for second in 51.07.

The silver and bronze medallists came from the first final, though. Roared on by her home crowd, Natalia Bukowiecka ran a Polish record of 50.83 as she passed Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands in the closing stages, the Dutch athlete clocking 51.02 to take bronze.

Wouldn't it have been great, however, to see Bukowiecka and Manuel in the same race? When Bukowiecka won her first race she didn't quite know how to celebrate either.

Will these pseudo time trials stand the test of time?