IAAF World Indoor Championships: Teenager Tefera takes 1500m title

Birmingham, March 5: Teenager Samuel Tefera won the men's 1500 metres as Roger Bannister was remembered on the final day of the IAAF Indoor World Championships in Birmingham.

Bannister, the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes, passed away on Saturday (March 3), with his death marked by a minute's silence at Arena Birmingham a day later.

And there was a surprise winner in Bannister's discipline, as 18-year-old Tefera stormed down the straight to pip Marcin Lewandowski and Abdelaati Iguider to the title, having broken the Under-20 indoor record in January.

That victory came as less of a shock to Tefera, though, who said afterwards: "I planned to win and I did it. I'm very happy."

Fellow Ethiopian youngster Yomif Kejelcha defended his indoor title in the 3000m, while Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba did likewise in the women's 800m - becoming the first woman since Maria Mutola in 2006 to retain that particular crown.

Samuel Tefera takes control of the 1500m at half way to wrap up another win for his country 🇪🇹

It's 3:58.19 for #IAAFworlds 🥇 pic.twitter.com/kQIsCpBiyc

— IAAF (@iaaforg) March 4, 2018

Later in the day, Andrew Pozzi won gold in the 60m hurdles - the first medal of the week for a male British athlete - as he edged out Jarret Eaton by a hundredth of a second to the delight of the home crowd.

The United States women's 4x400m relay team took a championship record and the gold, but the men's team were beaten on the home straight by Poland as Jakub Krzewina's stunning run secured a world record.

Ivana Spanovic, of Serbia, won the long jump with a leap of 6.96m, while French world record-holder Renaud Lavillenie - at 5.90m - claimed his third indoor pole vault title.

Source: OPTA