American Ashton Eaton stormed to a new world record in the heptathlon after dominating the gruelling two-day event at the World Indoor Athletics Championships here on Saturday. American Sanya Richards-Ross won the world indoor women's 400m title here on Saturday.
--- Richards-Ross wins world indoor women's 400m The 2009 world outdoor 400m champion clocked 50.79sec, with Russian Aleksandra Fedoriva taking silver in 51.76sec, with another American, Natasha Hastings, claiming bronze (51.82). Eaton, 24, racked up 6,645 points from the seven disciplines at the Atakoy Arena to better his own previous record of 6,568 points set at the Tallinn international indoor event in February last year.
The 24-year-old had set his first world record of 6,499 points at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Arkansas in March 2010, shattering the previous best of 6,476 set by compatriot Dan O'Brien at Toronto in 1993. "It feels good," said the Oregon-based Eaton. "Coming into the competition, I knew I could break the world record. "The competition was solid, everything was good and I didn't have a bad event.
In Friday's events, Eaton timed 6.79sec in the 100m, jumped a personal best of 8.16m in the long jump, managed a best of 14.56m in the shot put and cleared 2.03m in the high jump. The American opened Saturday's action with a fantastic 7.68sec in the 60m hurdles, a time that would have seen him rank sixth out of the 16 hurdlers progressing to the semi-finals of that discipline raced earlier in the morning session. In other contests, Morocco's Abdalaati Iguider won the world indoor men's 1500m title here on Saturday. Iguider clocked 3min 45.21sec for gold, with Kenyan-born Turkish runner Ilham Tanui Ozbilen claiming silver in 3:45.35 and Ethiopian Mekonnen Gebremedhin taking bronze (3:45.90).
Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie won the world indoor men's pole vault title. Lavillenie, twice a world outdoor bronze medallist, managed a best of 5.95 metres, Germany's Bjorn Otto taking silver with 5.80m on countback from American Brad Walker, who took bronze. American Chaunte Lowe won the world indoor women's high jump title. Lowe cleared 1.98 metres, as Russian world outdoor champion Anna Chicherova, Italian Antonietta Di Martino and Swede Ebba Jungmark tied for silver on 1.95m.
Costa Rica's Nery Brenes won the world indoor men's 400m title with record of 45.11 seconds. Demetrius Pinder (45.34sec) and Chris Brown (45.90) of the Bahamas completed the podium, while Grenada's world outdoor champion Kirani James could only finish in sixth and last spot.