Justin Gatlin won his first title since returning from a four-year doping ban with victory in the 60m at the world indoor championships on Saturday as the red-hot Americans grabbed four gold medals and a world record in Istanbul.
Heptathlete Ashton Eaton bettered his world mark and further wins for high jumper Chaunte Lowe and 400m runner Sanya Ross-Richards took the US’s gold medal tally to five.
While not garnering golds like the US, host nation Turkey had something to cheer with their first ever world indoor medals, thanks to a second place for Kenyan-born Ilham Tanui Ozbilen in the men’s 1,500m, behind Morocco’s Abdalaati Iguider, and third for Asli Cakir Alptekin in the women’s race, which was won by Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia.
Photo: AFP
Gatlin, who tested positive for testosterone in 2006, kept low out of the blocks and had edged clear of the field by the time he looked up to win the 60m title in 6.46 seconds.
Nesta Carter took silver with a time of 6.54 seconds as once again Jamaica failed in their bid to win a first men’s 60m title at the championships and Britain’s Dwain Chambers, champion two years ago in Doha, happily settled for third in 6.6 seconds.
Eaton’s heptathlon world record was his third since breaking Dan O’Brien’s 17-year-old mark of 6,476 points in March 2010.
The American was in imperious form. He had a 165-point lead after Friday’s four events. With the gold medal in the bag by the fifth, the 60m hurdles, Eaton was free to concentrate on the world mark.
Needing to run 2 minutes, 39.63 seconds or faster in the final discipline, the 1,000m, the 24-year-old shot off from the gun and crossed the line well clear of the field in 2:32.77.
It feels good,” Eaton said. “Coming into the competition, I knew I could break the world record. The competition was solid, I didn’t have a bad event.”
Both multi-event records have been broken at this world indoor championships. Ukrainian Nataliya Dobrynska became the first woman to go over 5,000 points in the pentathlon on Friday, with a total of 5,013.
Australian Sally Pearson made her trip worthwhile with gold in the 60m hurdles in a world leading time of 7.73 seconds.
American-born Tiffany Porter, dubbed a “Plastic Brit” by some sections of the British media after switching nationalities by virtue of dual citizenship, was second.
Yamile Aldama, another foreign-born Briton, gave the country their first gold of the championships winning the triple jump at the age of 39, 15 years after making her first appearance at the world indoors when she was competing for her native Cuba.
Lowe became the first American to win the women’s high jump title, clearing 1.98m, but the silver was a three-way split between Russian Anna Chicherova, Antonietta Di Martino of Italy and Sweden’s Ebba Jungmark after they all jumped 1.95m with identical records.
Nery Brenes gave Costa Rica their maiden world indoors medal with a championship record of 45.11 seconds in the 400m and Brazil’s Mauro Da Silva won the men’s long jump on countback from Henry Frayne of Australia after both athletes leaped out to 8.23m.
New Zealand’s Olympic and world outdoor shot put champion Valerie Adams threw 20.54m to defeat arch-rival Nadezhda Ostapchuk of Belarus and add the indoor title to her tally. European champion Renaud Lavillenie of France won the men’s pole vault.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB