Svetlana Feofanova of Russia has broken the world indoor pole vault record for the third time in eight days, by jumping 4.73 meters at the Flanders Indoor meet in Ghent, Belgium.
Feofanova made her latest record-breaking leap Sunday, beating the mark she set Wednesday in Stockholm, Sweden by one centimeter. The 21-year-old dominated the competition after her rival, American Olympic and World champion Stacy Dragila, pulled out with flu.
Earlier, Mark Bett of Kenya set a new world indoor best time in the 10,000 meter run. His time of 27 minutes and 50.29 seconds broke the 27-year-old record set by Belgian Emiel Puttemans by over 21 seconds.
Although Bett's mark was the fastest ever indoors, it won't be counted as an official world record because the IAAF stopped recognizing the infrequently run event in 1987.
Austria's Stephanie Graf ran the second fastest women's indoor 800 meters of all time, completing the distance in one minute, 56.85 seconds. That was just shy of the record (1:56.40) set by East Germany's Christine Wachtel in 1988.
Americans took the top places in the long jump. Savante Stingfellow was first with a leap of 8.2, meters, one centimeter ahead of Kevin Dilworth. World outdoor champion Andre Bucher of Switzerland scored an emphatic win in the men's 800 meters, completing the event in one minute, 14.80 seconds.