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More news articles Meadows wins 800m silver
UK record and runner-up spot for battling Briton in women’s 800m, while men’s triple jump sees world record on final day of IAAF World Indoor Championships
Teddy Tamgho: triple jump world record in Doha
JENNY MEADOWS took silver in the women’s 800m behind Mariya Savinova of Russia. The Briton improved her national record to 1:58.43, but Savinova was too strong at the finish and clocked 1:58.26 – the fastest time in the world this year - to take gold.
Meadows said: "I think silver is fantastic. I tried to keep going until the finish line. It was a big challenge and the girls were enormously strong. When I saw the time I told myself that at least it was a personal best."
The final day saw a relay medal for Britain too in the men’s 4x400m when the GB quartet took a surprise bronze, while the women were fifth in their race.
Anchored by Richard Buck, the team were only fifth fastest in qualifying but finished behind America after the Jamaican and Bahamas quartets failed to finish because of injury. Conrad Williams had started the race for Britain, followed by Nigel Levine and Chris Clarke before Buck took over.
But the big highlight of the final day was the men’s triple jump. Phillips Idowu would certainly have been pushed to win if he had travelled to Doha, because the event was won by 20-year-old Frenchman Teddy Tamgho with a world record of 17.90m.
Yoandris Betanzos and Arnie Girat – both of Cuba – finished second and third with 17.69m and 17.36 respectively. Christian Olsson of Sweden was fourth with 17.23m.
Tamgho's final round effort broke the mark of 17.83m shared by Aliecer Urrutia of Cuba and Olsson. Urrutia set the mark in 1997, while Olsson equalled it at the 2004 World Indoor Championships.
Elsewhere, Helen Clitheroe was eighth in a 1500m final that saw Ethiopia's Kalkidan Gezahegne, only 18, run 4:08.14 to narrowly beat Spaniard Natalia Rodríguez and another Ethiopian Gelete Burka.
With 2.24m, Samson Oni was seventh in the high jump won by Russian Ivan Ukhov with 2.36m.
Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva was surprisingly only fourth in the pole vault with an underpar 4.60m. Brazil's Fabiana Murer won gold ahead of Russia's Svetlana Feofanova – both athletes vaulting 4.80m - and Poland's world champion Anna Rogowska.
In the men’s sprint hurdles, Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba set a championship record of 7.34 after passing the fast-starting American Terrence Trammell. Defending champion Liu Xiang of China, on the comeback trail following injury, was seventh.
Continuing a successful championship for the United States, Brittney Reese won the women’s long jump with 6.70m. In the men’s 3000m, American Bernard Lagat ran 7:37.97 to beat Spain’s Sergio Sanchez.
In the women’s 60m, Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica won in 7.00m to beat Laverne Jones-Ferrette by three hundredths, with Carmelita Jeter a further two hundredths back in third.
Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus threw a championship best of 20.85m to win the women’s shot, beating New Zealander’s Valeri Vili’s 20.49m in the process.
In the men’s 800m, Abubaker Kaki of Sudan front-ran his way to the title in 1:46.23.
Britain finished the championships with four medals after golds for Jessica Ennis and Dwain Chambers won on Saturday.
* See this coming Thursday's AW for big coverage of the IAAF World Indoors in Doha plus the World Cross Trials and Inter-Counties from Birmingham. Also, follow twitter.com/Jason_AW for athletics news.
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