ISTANBUL (Reuters) – There were twists, turns and a back flip at the world indoor championships on Sunday but no world records, despite pole vault winner Yelena Isinbayeva’s best efforts.

Four-times champion Meseret Defar lost her 3,000 metres title to Kenyan Hellen Obiri and American hurdler Aries Merritt pulled off a surprise victory over China’s Liu Xiang as the U.S. dominated proceedings to finish top of the medal table with 10 golds for their best showing at the three-day championships.

ISTANBUL, March 11 (Reuters) – British sprinter Dwain
Chambers should not be allowed to compete in the Olympics,
London Games chairman Sebastian Coe said the day before the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) meets to determine whether
the British Olympic Association’s (BOA) ban is legal.

Chambers served a two-year suspension for doping and is
therefore ineligible to compete at any Games under a BOA byelaw.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – World indoor 60 meters champion Justin Gatlin and bronze medalist Dwain Chambers have both served doping bans but while the American can prepare for the Olympic trials, the Briton has yet to find out if he is eligible for the London Games.

Chambers was given a two-year suspension in 2003 after he was found to have used the banned anabolic steroid THG and is subject to a lifetime ban by the British Olympic Association.

ISTANBUL, March 10 (Reuters) – World indoor 60 metres
champion Justin Gatlin and bronze medallist Dwain Chambers have
both served doping bans but while the American can prepare for
the U.S Olympic trials, the Briton has yet to find out if he is
eligible for the London Games.

Chambers was given a two-year suspension in 2003 after he
was found to have used the banned anabolic steroid THG and is
subject to a lifetime ban by the British Olympic Association.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Justin Gatlin won his first title since returning from a four-year doping ban with victory in the 60 metres at the world indoor championships on Saturday as the red-hot Americans grabbed four gold medals and a world record in Istanbul.

Heptathlete Ashton Eaton bettered his world mark and further wins for high jumper Chaunte Lowe and 400 metres runner Sanya Ross-Richards took the U.S.’s gold medal tally to five.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – American Ashton Eaton broke his own world indoor heptathlon record with a total of 6,645 points to take the title at the world indoor championships on Saturday.

With the gold medal all but won after the first event of the day, the 60 meters hurdles, Eaton concentrated on bettering the mark of 6,568 he set in Tallinn last year.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – With the gold medal all but won, American Ashton Eaton was concentrating on breaking his heptathlon world record of 6,568 points at the world indoor championships on Saturday.

Eaton had a total of 5,690 points after six events, 466 clear of second-placed Oleksiy Kasyanov with just the 1,000 metres to come (1620 GMT).

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A world pentathlon record from an athlete overlooked in the pre-competition buildup and hearing problems for the sprinters dominated the first day of the world indoor athletics championships on Friday.

Briton Jessica Ennis’s clash with Tatyana Chernova, the Russian who took her world heptathlon title last year, was expected to provide the highlight of the opening day.

ISTANBUL, March 9 (Reuters) – A world pentathlon
record from an athlete overlooked in the pre-competition buildup
and hearing problems for the sprinters dominated the first day
of the world indoor athletics championships on Friday.

Briton Jessica Ennis’s clash with Tatyana Chernova, the
Russian who took her world heptathlon title last year, was
expected to provide the highlight of the opening day.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Ukraine’s Nataliya Dobrynska emerged from the shadows to set a pentathlon world record of 5,013 points at the world indoor championships on Friday and remind her rivals that she will be a force to be reckoned with at the London Olympics.

All the pre-competition talk had been of a much anticipated clash between Britain’s title holder Jessica Ennis and Russian world heptathlon champion Tatyana Chernova which failed to materialize.