Dwain Chambers completed his rehabilitation from a drugs suspension by winning the 60metre sprint in the World Indoor Championships in Doha last night. The Briton recorded a time of 6.48secs to edge out America's Mike Rodgers and the Antiguan Daniel Bailey. Chambers was given a two-year suspension from athletics in 2003 after testing positive for the steroid THG. "It was not an easy competition from beginning to end. I was a little bit slower out of the blocks and that is why I was not so relaxed as expected," he said. "I am not used to having two so challenging guys around me. It was the longest six-and-a-half seconds of my life.
"But I'm very happy with the win as it was one of my main goals ahead of the [July 27-August 1] European Championships in Barcelona, which is my main objective this year." Australia's Steve Hooker won the men's pole vault with a championship record jump of 6.01m, and set his sights on soaring even higher - and beating Ukrainian Sergey Bubka's 17-year-old mark of 6.15m. "I think I can continue and can come in the future to break the world record," he said. "It was also exciting to break the championship record. It feels as good as I have ever jumped in my career."
The American LoLo Jones retained her title in the 60m hurdles with a championship record of 7.72secs. "This is the biggest day of my career, my best race," she said. The Olympic champion, Bryan Clay, held on to his heptathlon title, adding to a successful day for the US team in which Christian Cantwell won his third shot putt crown and Debbie Dunn added gold in the 400m. Ethiopia's Meseret Defar won a record fourth consecutive women's 3,000m title.
* With agencies
