Nikki Hiltz Stays On Fire, Wins Pan Am 1500m Gold

Nikki Hiltz Stays On Fire, Wins Pan Am 1500m Gold

Nikki Hiltz keeps racking up the accolades in a her breakout 2019 season.

Aug 9, 2019 by Lincoln Shryack
Nikki Hiltz Stays On Fire, Wins Pan Am 1500m Gold

First year pro Nikki Hiltz added another accolade to her breakout rookie campaign on Friday, as the 24-year-old won women’s 1500m gold at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

Hiltz, who finished third in the U.S. 1500m two weeks ago with a late kick to qualify for her first World Championship team, used a similar formula to win in Lima in 4:07.14. The American zoomed past Jamaica’s Aisha Praught-Leer in the final 100m, sprinting away to a comfortable win with a 62-second final 400m.

Praught-Leer nabbed the silver in 4:08.26, with Hiltz’s fellow American, Alexa Efraimson, earning bronze in 4:08.63.

For the gold medalist Hiltz, it was her eighth win in the span of 10 races this spring and summer. She improved her PB to 4:03.55 in the U.S. final on July 27, beating out NCAA champion Sinclaire Johnson by .17 seconds for the third and final spot to Doha for the 2019 IAAF World Championships.