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.
PHOTO: AFP
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.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS