El Guerrouj claims indoor title

Hicham El Guerrouj: Claimed the men's title in style

Hicham El Guerrouj added the 3,000m indoor crown to his 1,500m title at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Lisbon.

El Guerrouj, who was beaten to the Olympic 1,500m title in Sydney, made the race his own with four laps to go.

The Moroccan crossed the line in seven minutes 37.74 seconds to beat Belgium's Morocco-born Mohammed Mourhit and bronze medalist Alberto Garcia of Spain.

"The race plan was quite clear," El Guerrouj said.

"Just the championship title counted to me. The biggest problem was the psychological burden of showing the world that Hicham El Guerrouj was still living and pushing hard," he added.

Personal best for Hurd

Olympic champion Tereza Marinova of Bulgaria won the women's triple jump gold, edging Russian Tatyana Lebedeva into silver.

Marinova, 23, won the competition on her first attempt when she jumped 14.91.

Tereza Marinova: Won the triple jump gold

Lebedeva, the reigning European indoor champion and Olympic silver medalist, got closest on her fifth attempt with a jump of 14.85.

US athlete Tiombe Hurd set a personal best of 14.19 to earn bronze.

In the women's 400m final, Commonwealth champion Sandie Richards of Jamaica won the women's 400m title in 51.04 seconds ahead of Russian Olga Kotlyarova.

Kotlyarova, fastest woman in the world this year, drew level with the 1993 world indoor gold medallist on the final bend.

However, she could not sustain her challenge and finished second in 51.56 ahead of team mate Olesya Zykina who clocked 51.71.

Benhassi double gold

Hasna Benhassi won a second gold medal for Morocco with a surprise victory in the women's 1,500 metres.

Only minutes after Hicham El Guerrouj had won the men's 3,000 final, Benhassi took the lead at the bell and sprinted away from the field to win the title in four minutes 10.83 seconds.

Sonia O'Sullivan, the Olympic 5,000 metres silver medallist, led the field through the early laps before fading badly and eventually finishing last.

Violetta Beclea-Szekely finished second in 4:11.17, with Russian Natalya Gorelova overtaking Sacramento in the closing metres to take the bronze in 4:11.74.

Morocco's Hasna Benhassi claimed the women's gold in four minutes, 10.83 seconds ahead of Romania's Violeta Szkely and Natalya Gorelova of Russia.

Mozambique's Maria Mutola produced a late surge to beat rival Stephanie Graf in the final of the women's 800m.

The Olympic champion crossed in one minute, 59.74 seconds - just 0.04 seconds ahead of the Austrian.

Russian middle distance runner Yuri Borzakovskiy confirmed his youthful promise to win the 800 metres gold, ahead of defending champion Johan Botha of South Africa.

The 19-year old Russian finished sixth in Sydney and had yet to lose this indoor season in five races.

World record

The women's 60 metres crown went to Chandra Sturrup, a member of the victorious Bahamas Olympic 4x100 metres relay.

Sotomayor cleared 2.25 metres but failed three times at 2.32, a modest height compared with his world mark of 2.43.

In the men's high jump, Sweden's Stefan Holm was the only man to clear 2.32 for the gold medal ahead of Ukraine's Andriy Sokolovskiy and bronze medallist Staffan Strand of Sweden who both cleared 2.29.

Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic got within 56 points of Dan O'Brien's world record in the heptathlon after getting close by winning the final discipline, the 1,000 metres, by a huge margin.

The Czech totaled 6,420 points for the gold medal, 187 points ahead of Iceland's Jon Arnor Magnusson and Lev Lobodin of Russia taking the bronze.

Russia won the women's 4 x 400 meter relay in 3:30.00 ahead of Jamaica and Germany with the Americans last of the four finalists.

Olympic champion Tereza Marinova of Bulgaria won the the women's triple jump gold medal with a leap of 14.91 metres.

Tatyana Lebedeva of Russia collected silver and Tiombe Hurt of the United States the bronze with a best ever 14.19.