There were twists, turns and a back flip at the World Indoor Championships Sunday but no world records, despite pole vault winner Yelena Isinbayeva's best efforts. Four-time champion Meseret Defar lost her 3,000 meters title to Kenyan Hellen Obiri and American hurdler Aries Merritt pulled off a surprise victory over China's Liu Xiang as the US dominated proceedings to finish top of the medal table with 10 golds for its best showing at the three-day championships. Bernard Lagat gained some revenge for his defeat in last year's world outdoors 5,000m final by beating Mo Farah in the men's 3,000m. Briton Farah finished fourth and was then promoted to bronze after Kenya's Edwin Soi was disqualified for obstruction only to have the medal taken away again on appeal. Two jumps — clearances at 4.70m and 4.80m — were enough to secure the title for Isinbayeva as she asserted her superiority in the pole vault to claim a fourth world indoor title. The Olympic champion failed at an indoor world record of 5.01m but still got the crowd to raise the roof when she ended her competition with a celebratory back flip on the mat. France's Vanessa Boslak was second on countback from Britain's Holly Bleasdale after both cleared 4.70. American Lagat showed that with age comes experience as the 37-year-old master tactician timed his attack in the 3,000m final to perfection to win a third world indoor title. With 150m to go Lagat hit the front and crossed the line in seven minutes 41.44 seconds. Kenyan Augustine Choge was second and Soi third 0.01 ahead of Farah, who made a desperate lunge for the line. A scorching last lap from Kenyan Obiri ended Defar's hopes of becoming the first woman to win five successive world indoor titles. The 22-year-old Obiri recorded a time of 8:37.16, a second ahead of the 2004 Olympic 5,000 champion. “I am very disappointed and very sad,” Ethiopia's Defar said. “The last 200 were very hard and I did not expect this. My feelings right now are very bad.” Another pre-race favorite who came off second best was Liu in the 60m hurdles. The 2004 Olympic high hurdles champion put his defeat to Merritt down to being in too much of a hurry. Earlier, Pamela Jelimo of Kenya had majestically pulled away on the final lap of the 800m to leave her rivals racing for the minor medals, winning in a world leading time of 1:58.83. Nataliya Lupu of Ukraine was second (1:59.67) with Erica Moore of the US third (1:59.97). The men's 800m was won by Ethiopia's Mohammed Aman. Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown left it late to retain her 60m title, coming through in the final few strides to win in 7.01 seconds — the fastest time of the year — and edge Murielle Ahoure into second. Former world outdoor long jump champion Tianna Madison was third for the US. Greece's Dimitrios Chondrokoukis cleared 2.33m to win the high jump on countback from Olympic champion Andrey Silnov of Russia. Elsewhere in the jumps, though, the US reigned supreme. Brittney Reese became the first woman to win successive long jump titles when a championship record leap of 7.23m in the final round took her above compatriot Janay DeLoach (6.98m). Will Claye jumped seven centimeters further than his teammate and outdoor world champion Christian Taylor to take gold in the triple jump. The Americans won the men's 4x400m relay but Britain pulled off a shock in the women's race when Perri Shakes-Drayton held off the US's individual champion Sanya Richards-Ross on the final leg.
