African 100m record-holder, Olusoji Fasuba of Nigeria has won the 60 metres gold at the 12th IAAF World indoor championships inside the Palau Velodromo, Luis Puig stadium in Valencia, Spain.
Fasuba, two-time African 100-meter champion, clocked in 6.51 seconds to equal his season's leading time well ahead of joint silver medal winners - Great Britain's Dwain Chambers and Kim Collins from Saint Kitts and Nevis - who were both timed at 6.54 seconds. American champion Michael Rodgers was fourth in 6.57seconds.
He was a silver medallist from the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games; 5th in 60 metres at the 2006 World Indoor Championships in Moscow; and 4th in 100 meters at the 2007 World outdoor athletics championships in Osaka, Japan.
Fasuba came to prominence in October 2003, when he ran a 10.15 personal best to win the 100-metres at the inaugural Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, India, and then got a place on the bronze medal winning Nigerian 4x100m relay team at the Athens 2004 Olympics in Greece.
Fasuba's compatriot Uche Isaac was sixth with 6.63 seconds.
Fasuba said after the race: “This was my
third try on the boards. I worked very hard for it. I’m very happy”.
However, pre-race favourite in the women's 60 metres Franca Idoko, stumbled at the start and ended up in seventh in 7.30 seconds, despite running the world fastest time a 7.09 seconds before the race, while African double sprint champion, Damola Osayomi was
sixth.