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Gatlin, Block confirm their pedigree

Austrian Elke Wolfling, France's Patricia Girard, and Cuban Yahumara Neyra , from left to right, jump hurdles during the heats of the 60m hurdles, yesterday at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham. PHOTO: AFP

Sprinters Justin Gatlin and Zhanna Block arrived at the World Indoor Championships as the favorites to take the 60m titles and the pair didn't buckle under the pressure on Friday.

Gatlin, still only 21, shot to the top of the indoor rankings with the 6.45 seconds he ran to win the US Championships earlier this month and confirmed his prodigious talent by clocking 6.46 seconds to win his first global title.

"I kept my mind clear on the start line," said Gatlin. "I knew that if I was to think about the race then it would get to me."

Taking the silver medal a distant second behind Gatlin in 6.53 seconds was Kim Collins from the small Caribbean islands of St. Kitts and Nevis.

Collins became the first athlete from the nation to win a medal at these championships -- in fact St. Kitts had only sent athletes to two of the previous nine editions.

Block, representing the Ukraine although she spends much of her time in the US, won the women's 60m gold medal in 7.04 seconds, the fastest time in the world this year and a national record.

"I am not an indoor specialist so this result opens up the prospect of a great summer season," said Block, who stunned Marion Jones to win the outdoor 100m title two years ago.

Gatlin and Block were not the only speed merchants to catch the eye.

American sprinter Michelle Collins blasted round one lap of Britian's National Indoor Arena to run the fastest women's 200m for eight years when she clocked 22.31sec in the semi-finals of her event.

Collins is better known as a 400m runner and said before Friday's outing that she was just doing the shorter distance this winter to work on her speed.

Friday's performance makes her the fourth fastest woman of all-time and the clear favorite to take the gold medal.

Swedish multi-event specialist Carolina Kluft set a championship record of 4,933 points when

winning the women's pentathlon.

Kluft, still only 20, posted the second best ever tally for the indoor discipline.

Only the 11-year-old world record of Russia's Irina Belova, which stands at 4,991, is better.

Kluft set indoor personal bests for four of the five events and made a brave bid to beat Belova's world best in the opening laps of final event, the 800m, but her weary legs ran out of energy in the final 300m.

The gold is Kluft's third at a major international championship in less than nine months.

Last summer she won the heptathlon at the World Junior Championships and outdoor European Championships, on both occasions setting world junior records.

The final gold medal on the first of three days went to Spanish shot putter Manual Martinez, who sent the implement flying out to 21.24m with the penultimate throw of the thrilling competition.

Martinez overtook the leader John Godina by one centimeter and the American couldn't respond with his final effort.

The gold was Spain's first at the championships since they acquired official status in 1987.

Every victor inevitably had a broad smile but it was tears and tantrums for a number of other well-known athletes.

Portugal's defending men's 1,500m champions Rui Silva, and favorite to take the crown again, ran a tactically inept race on Friday and crashed out in the heats.

"I was weak in the head coming around the final bend and so people passed me," raged Silva at his own failings.

American sprinter-cum-hurdler Terrence Trammell, who was expected to be among the medals at both the 60m and 60m hurdles, pulled a hamstring in Friday morning's heats of the former event and was out of yesterday's heats over the barriers.

Defending 200m champion Shawn Crawford was disqualified from the semi-final of his specialist event for running out of his lane.

The women's triple jump had its share of shocks as well as Bulgaria's Tereza Marinova, the 2000 Olympic champion, and Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva, the reigning world outdoor champion, both failed to get among the eight qualifiers for yesterday's final.
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