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Soboleva breaks record to claim gold

Britain's Phillips Idowu celebrates after winning the final of the men's triple jump on Sunday at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain. PHOTO: AFP

Russia's Yelena Soboleva improved on her own world 1,500m record on Sunday as she clinched gold on the final day of the World Indoor Championships.

Soboleva, who has always previously been the bridesmaid rather than the bride at major championships, ran 3 minutes 57.71 seconds to better her old mark of 3 minutes 58.05 seconds which she set in Moscow on Feb. 10.

It was the 25-year-old's first global or continental title.

Soboleva deliberately shared the pace with her fellow Russian Yuliya Fomenko in a bid to shake off the best of the rest of the world before flying to the front with one lap to go and accelerating away from her compatriot.

Fomenko, the defending champion from two years ago in Moscow, held her form to take silver in 3:59.41, the second fastest time ever.

The Russian pair towed their nearest rivals to outstanding times as well.

Ethiopia's Gelete Burka finished third with an African record of 3:59.75.

Bahrain's Maryam Yusuf Jamal, the world champion outdoors last summer when she left Soboleva clutching the silver medal, came fourth in an Asian record 3:59.79.

Arguably the biggest upset of the championships was the victory of Tamsyn Lewis in the women's 800m, in which she went into the final as the least-favored of the six women on the start line.

The Australian athlete had not run indoors before arriving in Valencia but took her chance 100m from the end in a tactical battle over four laps of the track to win in 2:02.57.

Ukraine's Tetiana Petlyuk took silver in 2:02.66 with Mozambique legend Maria Mutola settling for bronze in 2:02.97.

For Mutola, the 2000 Olympic 800m champion and triple outdoor champion in 1993, 2001 and 2003, it was a ninth indoor medal.

Croatia's reigning world outdoor high jump champion Blanka Vlasic was the only woman clear at 2.03m to clinch the gold medal in a high quality competition and then put the bar up to 2.09m.

Vlasic had three failures but two of her attempts were close enough to suggest she can clear that height outdoors.

"I came here thinking I could improved my personal best but I was a bit stressed because the other girls were going so well," said Vlasic, the very last competitor in action over the three days of the Championships.

US multi-event exponent Bryan Clay was within sight of the heptathlon world record going into the 1,000m, the last event of the seven disciplines.

However, halfway into the race, Clay started to struggle from the effort of the previous six events and settled for plodding around the final two laps to secure gold.

A stunning gun-to-tape run in the men's 800m by Sudanese teenager Abubaker Kaki gave his country their first world indoor gold in an outstanding 1:44.81, the fifth fastest time ever.

British triple jumper Phillips Idowu, sporting dyed bright red hair, added the world indoor title to the European crown he notched up last winter when he bounded out to a new Commonwealth record of 17.75m.

Russia's Olesya Zykina was the only double gold medalist of the Championships.

Zykina just held off her compatriot Natalya Nazarova to take the individual women's 400m gold medal in a time of 51.09, with Nazarova finishing one-hundredth in arrears

The pair then recovered sufficiently and, just under two hours later, they helped Russia to their eighth consecutive 4x400m relay title in 3:28.17.

New Zealand's Valerie Vili produced a massive first round heave of 20.19m to win the women's shot put.
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