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MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
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Some of the world's greatest athletes have graced the World Indoor Championships.
BBC Sport profiles seven of the most successful performers.
Maria Mutola - five golds
800m - 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001 & 2003
Mutola took her first gold in Toronto
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Mutola's arrival on the indoor championship scene in 1993 coincided with Christine Wachtel's departure.
The German had won gold at the first three championships before Mutola took over her mantle to win a hat-trick of first places in the next three championships.
The 30-year-old's first two golds came in a period between 1992 and 1996 when she won 50 consecutive races.
But Ludmila Formanov's gold medal run in Japan meant the Mozambique runner had to wait until Lisbon 2001 for her fourth successive title, where she produced a late surge to beat rival Stephanie Graf in a time of one minute, 59.74 seconds.
Graf again had to settle for silver in Birmingham last year, when Mutola claimed an historic fifth World Indoor title.
Ivan Pedroso - five golds
Long jump - 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001
With five successive wins to his name, Pedroso has won more gold medals than any other man in World Indoor Championships history.
Pedroso's career was interrupted by a hamstring injury and subsequent surgery in 1996 and some observers claim that he has lost much of his speed on the runway as a result.
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LEADING GOLD MEDALLISTS
Five golds
Maria Mutola (MOZ)
- 800m
Ivan Pedroso (CUB)
- Long jump
Four golds
Haile Gebrselaisse (ETH)
- 1500m & 3000m
Stefka Kostadinov (BUL)
- High jump
Mikhail Shchennikov (RUS)
- 5000m walk
Javier Sotomayor (CUB)
- High jump
Gabreila Szabo (ROM)
- 1500m & 3000m
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But his record in the championships flies in the face of that suggestion.
In his first season back after surgery the 28-year-old won 22 out of 23 competitions including the world championships in Paris - his third gold.
The biggest threat to his run of success came in Japan in 1999 when he found himself locked in a duel with Yago Lamela.
The Spaniard recorded three successive national records in the final before Pedroso quelled his challenge with a leap of 8.62 metres - the second longest jump indoors behind Carl Lewis' world record of 8.79 metres.
Pedroso again showed his determination at the Sydney Olympics when he left it to the last jump of the competition before finally beating Australia's "Jumpin" Jai Tuarima - and the partisan crowd - with a jump of 8.55 metres.
The Cuban star sealed an unprecedented fifth world indoor title at Lisbon 2001 by reaching a hefty 8.43 on his final jump.
Haile Gebrselassie - four golds
3,000m - 1997, 1999, 2003
1,500m - 1999
Gebrselaisse returned to top form in Birmingham last year
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Gebrselassie won his first gold at the championships in 1997 when he went through a whole season losing only one race.
In Paris the distance running legend went one better on two counts.
Throughout the 1999 indoor season the Ethiopian won every race he entered, including the 1500m and 3000m at the championships - an unprecedented achievement.
At Birmingham four years later, he made a mockery of suggestions he was past his prime by regaining the 3000m title for a well-deserved fourth World Indoor gold.
Gabriela Szabo - four golds
3000m - 1995, 1997 & 1999
1500m - 1999
Szabo managed the impressive achievement of grabbing four gold medals from her first three World Indoor Championships.
The Romanian made her debut at the championships in Barcelona in 1995.
Szabo comfortably won the 3,000 metres - which is not a championship event outdoors - and maintained her grip on the title for the next four years.
Her times improved markedly each time and, after winning in eight minutes 36.42 seconds in Maebashi, Elly van Hulst's then world indoor record of 8:33.82 was within her sights.
She finally broke the 12-year record by 0.92 seconds just over a month before Lisbon 2001 in none other than Birmingham
But Szabo was to be denied a fourth title by Russian unknown Olga Yegorova who made a devastating surge 300 metres from the finish line to claim gold in Portugal.
In addition to her achievements in the 3,000m, she added another string to her indoor bow in Maebashi with gold in the 1500m in a championship record time of 4.03.23.
Javier Sotomayor - four golds
High jump - 1989, 1993, 1995 & 1999
Sotomayor celebrates a winning jump in 1999
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Master of the high jump, Sotomayor suffered mixed fortunes during his controversial career, but enjoyed amazing success at the world indoor championships.
He was disgraced in 1999 after he tested positive for drugs at the Pan-American games.
The Cuban's two year ban was exonerated by the IAAF and cut in half allowing him to compete at the Sydney Olympics where he won silver behind Russia's Sergey Kliugin.
Silver is the only coloured medal Sotomayor did not win at the world indoor championships.
Sotomayor won the first of his four golds in 1989 with a world record jump of 2.43m, which still stands, after six hours of competition.
A bronze followed in 1991 before back-to-back golds in 1993 and 1995, the first of which came after a clearance of 2.41m - the second highest clearance at the championships.
Sotomayor added his fourth gold in Maebashi when he edged out Russia's Vyacheslav Voronin after the pair both cleared 2.36m.
He failed to claim a fifth in Lisbon and announced his retirement in late 2001, just before it was revealed he had tested positive for the banned steroid nandrolone at a meeting in Spain.
The Cuban stars insists he is innocent.
Sergey Bubka - three golds
Pole vault - 1987, 1991 & 1995
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THREE-TIME WINNERS
Sergey Bubka (UKR)
- Pole vault
Marcus O'Sullivan (IRE)
- 1500m
Merlene Ottey (SLO/JAM)
- 60m & 200m
Christine Wachtel (GER)
- 800m
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The greatest ever pole vaulter went seven years up to 1990 without losing an event and in that period won his first indoor gold at the inaugural championships in Indianapolis.
When the Ukranian won his second gold in 1991 he recorded the first vault over six metres - one of his 15 indoor world records.
Bubka regained his title four years later in Barcelona and has since retired.
Merlene Ottey - three golds
60m - 1995
200m - 1989 & 1991
Ottey claimed her 60m title in 1995
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Ottey has won a record number of medals at the indoor championships - six.
In the inaugural championships in America, she was beaten into second in the 200m by Dreschler's then world record run of 22.27 seconds.
Two years on the Jamaican sprinter went one better in the 200m and came third in 60m and from shortly after Budapest in 1989 Ottey embarked on a 73 race winning streak.
The 73rd win came in the 1991 championships 200m final when she beat Irina Privalova into second to claim a second successive gold in the event.
However, the following day that run came to an end in the 60m final when the roles were reversed and Privalova, the indoor 60m record holder, took gold.
Four years on in Barcelona, Ottey finally grabbed gold in the 60m breaking seven seconds in the process.
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