Liu and Jones claim hurdles golds in Valencia

Lolo Jones celebrates her victory in the final of the women's 60m hurdles at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Valencia, Spain, on Saturday. PHOTO: EPA

China's Liu Xiang fulfilled predictions by taking the World Indoor Championships 60m hurdles title on Saturday to begin his Beijing Olympics build-up in style.

The 24-year-old ran 7.46 seconds to add the only major title missing from his collection.

In contrast to flying starts in the heats and semi-finals, Liu was relatively slow out of his blocks in the final, possibly avoiding any possibility of elimination after a false start had been called.

He fell just short of his Asian record of 7.42 seconds.

The women's 60m hurdles title seemed certain to go to Sweden's Susanna Kallur after she had set a world record of 7.68 seconds last month, but she pulled out of the final just minutes before the start after feeling a hamstring twinge while warming up.

The gold medal instead went to Lolo Jones of the US.

Drama also engulfed the men's 1,500m with Ethiopia's Deresse Mekonnen the first across the line in 3 minutes 38.23 seconds only to be initially disqualified for alleged impeding of other runners.

Kenya's Daniel Kipchirchir Komen was then given the gold only to be relegated back to second place nearly two-and-a-half hours later after Ethiopian protests.

Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva found 4.75m sufficient to take a third consecutive world indoor gold medal.

Another woman who took a third consecutive indoor world title was Ethiopia's Meseret Defar, who came home in 8:38.79 in the 3,000m.

Sweden's Stefan Holm made up for any disappointment felt by Kallur's withdrawal by taking the men's high jump with a clutch clearance on his first attempt at 2.36m.