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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 7:01 a.m., Saturday, March 7, 2009

Track and field: Farah wins 3000-meter gold at European Indoors

By JEREMY INSON
Associated Press Writer

TURIN, Italy — Mo Farah broke the championship record in winning the 3,000 meters at the European Indoors on Saturday, while Fabrizio Donato set the championship record in winning the triple jump.

Farah crossed the line in 7 minutes, 40.17 seconds, beating Bouabdellah Tahri of France, who finished in 7:42.14. Jesus Espana won bronze in a time of 7:43.29.

All three were part of a group that led an initial breakaway. With five laps remaining, Farah and Tahri pulled ahead and Farah then broke free with two laps left to run.

"The title means a lot to me after many injuries," Farah said. "I was the clear favorite and felt a lot of pressure as everybody was watching me. The best tactic was to run fast."

Donato jumped 17.59 meters to win the triple jump and became host Italy's first medallist of the championships — all the more stunning after the 33-year-old failed to record a jump with his first four attempts.

"Only one jump made the difference," Donato said. "Sometime I mess up my jumps and make everything tough, but I was aware of my potential and it would have been a pity not to fulfill my potential after training hard for many years."

Viktor Yastrebov of Ukraine won the silver medal with a leap of 17.25 and Russia's Igor Spasovkhodskiy won the bronze with a jump of 17.15.

Ivan Ukhov lived up to his billing as pre-competition favorite in winning the high jump, clearing a height of 2.32 meters. Aleksey Dmitrik and Kyriakos Ioannou shared the silver when both cleared 2.29 but couldn't be separated on countback.

Russia won its second gold of the day when Yuliya Golubchikova took the pole vault title with a clearance of 4.75 meters, beating Silke Spiegelburg of Germany on countback.

Anna Battke won the bronze with a new personal best of 4.65 meters.