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Briton Richard Kilty, only racing as a replacement for injured teammate James Dasaolu, was a shock winner of the men’s 60m gold at the World Indoor Athletics Championships at Sopot yester day. |
Kilty, 24, made a storming start and held his form to time a personal best of 6.49 seconds, with rising American star Marvin Bracy taking silver in 6.51sec.
Nigerian-born Qatari Femi Ogunode claimed bronze (6.52) in a photo-finish with China’s Bingtian Su and Zambia’s Gerald Phiri.
British veteran Dwain Chambers was sixth in 6.53, just ahead of Jamaican favourite Nesta Carter, the fifth fastest man of all time over 100m.
Meanwhile, US combined events master Ashton Eaton was left gasping for air after cruelly failing to better his own world record when retaining his world indoor heptathlon title yesterday.
Eaton, whose Canadian wife Brianne Thiesen Eaton won silver in the women’s pentathlon on Friday, was overnight leader after the first four events (60m - 6.66sec, long jump - 7.78m, shot put - 14.88m, high jump - 2.06m).
Yesterday, he timed 7.64sec in the 60m hurdles before nailing 5.20m in the pole vault, leaving himself the goal of running 2:33.54 or faster in the final event, the strength-sapping 1,000m.
Leading from the front, Eaton pushed himself all the way, roared on by a capacity crowd at the Ergo Arena in the Polish Baltic Sea resort of Sopot.
But he left himself needing to run a final 200 metres in 28 seconds, something that fell 1.18sec beyond an athlete who is also the current world and Olympic decathlon champion and world record holder.
“I’m happy, but I wish I could have got the world record,” said Eaton, who missed out on what could have been a $50,000 bonus for a new world record.
“I wasn’t alone on the track with all these great supporters.”
Eaton eventually crossed the line in 2:34.72 for a total of 6,632 points in the indoor seven-discipline event, 13 short of the world record of 6,645 he set when winning the indoor title in Istanbul in 2010.
Belarus’ Andrei Krauchanka claimed silver with 6,303pts and Belgian Thomas van der Plaetsen took bronze (6,259).
Easy for Valerie
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s record-breaking shot putter Valerie Adams defended her world indoor title with ease.
Adams, 29, managed a best of 20.67 metres in a performance that mirrored her outdoor dominance—she won golds in the Beijing and London Olympics, and also picked up four consecutive world and two Commonwealth Games titles. Germany’s Christina Schwanitz took silver with 19.94m and China’s Lijiao Gong claimed bronze (19.24m).
American Francena McCorory won women’s 400m gold. McCorory timed 51.12 seconds after a strong second 200m, with Jamaican Kaliese Spencer claiming silver in a personal best of 51.54sec. Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas held off hard-finishing local hope Justyna Swiety to take bronze in 52.06.
Russian Ekaterina Koneva won the women’s triple jump. A world silver medallist at the Moscow outdoor worlds last year, Koneva leapt a best of 14.46 metres, edging Ukraine’s former world champion Olga Saladukha into silver by one centimetre. Jamaican Kimberly Williams took bronze with 14.39m.
Ethiopian-born Swede Abeba Aregawi clinched the women’s 1500m gold.
Aregawi, 23, who moved to Sweden in 2009 and took Swedish citizenship in June 2012 but was not cleared to run by the IAAF until December of that year, clocked 4min 00.61sec.
Ethiopian Axumawit Embaye took silver in 4:07.12, with Morocco’s Rababe Arafi claiming bronze (4:07.53).