VALENCIA, Spain - Russian middle distance runner Yelena Soboleva stole the show on the final day of the world indoor championships when she smashed her own indoor world record to take gold in the 1,500 metres.
Russia's Yelena Soboleva celebrates after setting a world record in the women's 1500m final at the 12th IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championship in Valencia March 9, 2008. [Agencies] |
The 25-year-old Russian left the rest of the field trailing in her wake as she crossed the line in a time of three minutes 57.71 seconds, 0.34 quicker than the record she set in Moscow last month.
Fellow Russian Yuliya Fomenko was second in 3:59.41, while Gelete Burka of Ethiopia grabbed the bronze.
United States heptathlete Bryan Clay, Australian 800 metre runner Tamsyn Lewis, African runners Tariku Bekele and Abubaker Kaki Khamis and British triple jumper Phillips Idowu also shone on the final day in which 14 titles were decided.
Clay, world decathlon champion in 2005 and twice runner-up in the world indoors, claimed gold in the multi-event competition with an outstanding set of performances over the two days.
The American amassed a personal best total of 6,371 points, just 105 short of Dan O'Brien's 1993 world record, as he won four of the seven events to finish ahead of Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus and Kazakhstan's Dmitriy Karpov.
LAST-LAP BURST
Lewis spoiled Maria Mutola's hopes of winning an eighth indoor world title when she produced an impressive last-lap burst to hurtle past the 35-year-old from Mozambique and Tetiana Petlyuk to take gold.
The Australian crossed the line in two minutes 2.57, with Petlyuk taking the silver and Mutola the bronze.
Bekele took advantage of older brother Kenenisa's absence to storm his way to victory in the men's 3,000m in a time of seven minutes 48.23.
The 21-year-old set a scorching pace on the final two laps to give Kenyan steeplechase specialist Paul Kipsiele Koech and fellow Ethiopian Abreham Cherkos no chance of victory.
Kaki Khamis became Sudan's first world indoor gold medallist at the age of 18 as he held off South African Mbulaeni Mulaudzi and Yusuf Saad Kamel of Bahrain in the 800 metres.
Triple jumper Idowu won Britain's first gold of the championships with a massive leap of 17.75 metres, just eight centimetres off Aliecer Urrutia's 11-year-old world record and more than half a metre better than his previous best mark of the season.
