Yelena Soboleva from Russia broke the world record on Sunday in the women's 1,500-meter race at the 12th World Indoor Championships in Athletics in Valencia, Spain.
Russia's Yelena Soboleva poses behind a stopwatch showing the world record she set in the women's 1500m final at the 12th IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championship in Valencia March 9, 2008.
Soboleva, the world No. 1 runner in the event, set a new world record after clocking a time of 3:57.71 in the race to break the old mark of 3:58.05, which she herself set on Feb. 10 this year in Moscow.
She collected the gold and an additional bonus of 50,000 U.S. dollars except for the 40,000 dollars for a champion at the world indoors.
"I'm really glad about this victory here in Valencia although I didn't expect to break the world record," Soboleva said.
"The key for us to win gold and silver was to impose a very fast pace from the start," she told reporters, adding she and her compatriot Yuliya Fomenko "agreed before the race to run at a speed that suited us both and that whoever was strongest would win on the last lap."
Yelena Soboleva of Russia poses with her gold medal during the award ceremony for the women's 1500 metres at the 12th IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championship in Valencia March 9, 2008.
Fomenko came second with a speed of 3:59.41, her personal best, to capture the silver.
Ethiopia's Gelete Burka collected the bronze medal by clocking 3: 59.75.
(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2008)