Israel Saria
Eurosport
Dwain Chambers failed to win the world indoor 60 metres title by just three hundreths of a seconds as Nigerian Olusoji Fasuba took the gold in Valencia.
Fasuba, the world leader, produced powerful finish to help him clock a time of 6.51secs with Chambers achieving a lifetime best in second.
Chambers had to wait for almost five minutes before learning he had finished on the same Kim Collins, of St Kitts and Nevis, with both then awarded silver medals.
Chambers, trying to resurrect his athletics career after returning to the sport after a two-year doping ban and failed attempt to forge a career in American football, was delighted with his medal and a personal best performance.
“That silver medal is my gold,” he said.
“As I said before this is my Olympics. I got a personal best. The best man won but for me this is the best feeling ever…cool.
“It has been a learning experience but I want to use it to teach other people and my son not to go down that road because it’s ugly and I’m here to do the right thing. Now I can sleep at night.”
Kelly Sotherton lost the pentathlon gold medal by just 15 points after a dramatic finale to the event.
Sotherton, who had to beat Belgian rival Tia Hellebaut by seven seconds over 800 metres, almost pulled off the feat in the final event.
Sotherton ran a personal best time of two minutes 9.95 seconds and then the exhausted Hellebaut swayed before falling across the finishing line.
Fellow Briton Jeanette Kwakye secured an impressive silver medal in the women’s 60 metres.
The 24-year-old British champion just missed out by two hundredths of a second when edged out in the last few strides by Angela Williams, the American winning in 7.06 seconds.
But Kwakye, who equalled the 22-year-old British record of 7.13 secs in her semi-final, made it her own property with a superb time of 7.08 secs.
American Christian Cantwell recaptured the shot put title he won four years ago by beating compatriot Reese Hoffa.
Cantwell had developed a reputation of failing to perform on big occasions after finishing out of the medals in every major competition since his 2004 world indoor triumph in Budapest.
However, this time he lived up to his billing with the best three marks of the competition, including the winning put of 21.77 metres which he set in the fifth round.
Defending world indoor and outdoor champion Hoffa was second with 21.20 and Poland’s Tomasz Majewski third with a throw 20.93.
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