American Justin Gatlin took another step towards redemption after a four-year doping ban by comprehensively winning the 60m at the World Indoor Athletics Championships yesterday.
Gatlin, the 2004 Athens Olympics 100m gold medallist, powered out of his blocks at the Atakoy Arena and led the field from gun to tape, timing an impressive 6.46 seconds.
Jamaican Nesta Carter, a key part of his country’s world and Olympic gold-medal winning 4x100m relay squads, for once basked in some individual glory with a fighting silver in 6.54sec.
Defending champion Dwain Chambers, of Britain, had to be happy with bronze at 6.60sec in a photo-finish with American Trell Kimmons, who remains the fastest sprinter in the world this season.
Chambers’s result could not have come at a better time as he waits for the court case that will decide his fate at this summer’s London Olympic Games.
The Englishman sent out a reminder that he remains Britain’s best sprinter despite finding himself in the ironic position of being unable for the moment to represent his country at the Olympics because of his doping-blighted past.
The former European 100m champion, who was banned for two years after testing positive for the anabolic steroid THG in 2004, is currently unable to appear in the London Games due to a British Olympic Association (BOA) ruling.
The BOA will argue before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) tomorrow that their by-law, which bans convicted drugs cheats from competing in the Olympic Games, does not violate the World Anti-Doping Association code.
But if CAS find the BOA’s by-law to be non-compliant with the world anti-doping code, Chambers will be cleared to be selected for Team GB.
Sally Pearson, of Australia, won the women’s 60m hurdles title and American Chaunte Lowe pre-vailed in the high jump.
Reigning world outdoor 100m hurdles champion and current IAAF female athlete of the year Pearson timed 7.73 seconds over the five hurdles.
US-born Briton Tiffany Porter clocked 7.94sec for silver, with Belarus’s Alina Talay taking bronze (7.97).
Lowe cleared 1.98 metres, as Russian world outdoor cham-pion Anna Chicherova, Italian Antonietta Di Martino and Swede Ebba Jungmark tied for silver on 1.95m.
Earlier, American Ashton Eaton stormed to a new world record in the heptathlon after dominating the gruelling two-day event in Istanbul.
Eaton, 24, racked up 6,645 points from the seven disciplines to better his own previous record of 6,568 points set at the Tallinn international indoor event in February last year.
With Eaton’s team-mate Bryan Clay absent from Istanbul, Ukraine’s Oleksiy Kasyanov took silver with 6,071 points and Russian Artem Lukyanenko claimed bronze (5,969).
Maltese Sprinter
• Rebecca Camilleri represented Malta in the 60m race in Istanbul, yesterday.
She sprinted home in 7.68 seconds which was ranked as a personal best time for the Maltese runner.
Camilleri finished fifth in a heat won by Murielle Ahoure (Ivory Coast) in 7.34 seconds.