Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva's career took another turn for the worse after her second straight failure at a major event Sunday when she finished out of the medals at the World Indoor Athletics Championships. At 35, Bernard Lagat was going as strong as ever to win gold in the 3,000 meters. The championships ended on a high note when France's Teddy Tamgho set a world record of 17.90 meters on his last attempt in the last event to win the triple jump and overcome Cuba's Yoandris Betanzos. The old mark of 17.83 was shared by Christian Olsson of Sweden and Cuba's Aliecer Urrutia. The results of Isinbayeva and Lagat also reflected their nation's success, with the United States riding high with eight gold and 17 overall medals, while Russia had two gold and nine medals. Olympic champion Isinbayeva failed three times at 4.75 meters and was left with just a clearance of 4.60. Instead, Fabiana Murer and Russia's Svetlana Feofanova both cleared 4.80, but the Brazilian took gold on a countback. Outdoor world champion Anna Rogowska took bronze. Lagat finished in his season's best of 7 minutes, 37.97 seconds, for a big 1.58-second gap over Spain's Sergio Sanchez. Over the last lap, Sergio Sanchez of Spain also overtook defending champion Tariku Bekele to claim silver and Kenya's Sammy Alex Mutahi was third. With the first gold of the day, he put the United States on a roll. Soon Brittney Reese added the indoor title to the outdoor world long jump title when she edged defending champion Naide Gomes with a 6.70-6.67 meter edge. Both men's and women's relays also took gold. There were setbacks too. Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba won the 60 meter hurdles, edging favorite Terrence Trammell at the line. Defending champion Liu Xiang of China finished seventh. Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown added an indoor title to her two Olympic 200 golds when she surprised everyone by setting a personal best of 7 seconds to win the 60 meters ahead of LaVerne Jones-Ferrette and American champion Carmelita Jeter. But the Americans were on top in the women's 1,600 relay, its first victory in an event Russia had won every time since 1993. With silver, 30-year-old Russian Natalya Nazarova did join Maria Mutola as the most medaled world indoor athlete with nine overall. Both have seven gold. In the women's 3,000, 18-year-old Kalkidan Gezahegne of Ethiopia emerged from the shadows of defending champion and compatriot Gelete Burka to become the youngest female world indoor champion. When everyone was expecting Burka, it was Gezahegne who had the strongest kick to claim the title. Burka faded to third as Spain's Natalia Rodriguez nipped her for silver at the line. Russian Mariya Savinova won the women's 800m.
