Record-setter Eaton, Gatlin lead US medal charge

Record-setting heptathlete Ashton Eaton and sprinter Justin Gatlin led a US gold medal charge on the second day of the World Indoor Athletics Championships here on Saturday. Eaton obliterated his own indoor heptathlon world record and Gatlin stormed to the 60m title as team-mates Sanya Richards-Ross (400m) and Chaunte Lowe (high jump) also claimed golds as the US team consolidated their place atop the medals table. Eaton racked up 6,645 points from the seven disciplines at the Atakoy Arena to better his own previous record of 6,568 points set at the Tallinn international indoor event in February last year. "It feels good," said Eaton after negotiating his way past the 100m (6.79sec), long jump (8.16m), shot put (14.56m), high jump (2.03m), 60m hurdles (7.68sec), pole vault (5.20m) and 1000m (2:32.77). "Coming into the competition, I knew I could break the world record. The competition was solid, everything was good and I didn't have a bad event." Gatlin took another step towards redemption after a four-year doping ban by comprehensively winning the 60m. The 2004 Athens Olympics 100m gold medallist and 2003 world indoor sprint champion powered out of his blocks at the Atakoy Arena and led the field through from gun to tape, timing an impressive 6.46sec. Jamaican relay specialist Nesta Carter took silver with defending champion Dwain Chambers of Britain, who has also served a two-year doping ban, content with bronze. "I came here to dominate and I wanted to follow up," said Gatlin. "I just had to make sure that once the gun sounded, I went out. "I won the the 2003 world indoors in Birmingham with exactly the same time and it feels great to be back." The bronze medal could not have come at a better time for Chambers as he waits for the court case that will decide his fate at this summer's London Olympic Games. Australian Sally Pearson replicated the form that bagged her the world outdoor high hurdles title to scoop gold in the 60m hurdles. The current IAAF female athlete of the year timed a blistering 7.73sec to well and truly set down her marker ahead of the Olympics. "I felt the pressure but I was in fantastic shape. And I was ready," said Pearson. US-born Briton Tiffany Porter took silver and while many cynics dubbed her an opportunistic "plastic Brit" for her late change of nationality, she will now go to the Games as one of the home nation's medal hopes. Another joining her in that bracket will be Cuban-born Yamile Aldama, who previously competed for Cuba and Sudan before switching allegiances to the British flag in February 2010: she won gold in the triple jump at the age of 39. "Better late than never!" beamed the mother of two. "This is my first world title, 12 years after winning my silver in Seville. "This gold is for my mom and my children and a great motivation for London." On the track there was a major upset in the men's 400m when world outdoor champion Kirani James of Grenada came in last in the final, Costa Rica's Nery Brenes the shock victor. And women's middle-distance runners, beware. The 1500m heralded the arrival on the senior stage of one Genzebe Dibaba, younger sister of the multi-medal winning world and Olympic champion Tirunesh. Dibaba was cool as a cucumber as she held off a feisty field for her first taste of world senior gold. In the field, there were victories for Brazil's Mauro Vinicius Da Silva (long jump), Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie (pole vault) and New Zealand's Valerie Adams (shot put), while Moroccan Abdalaati Iguider sealed gold in the men's 1500m.