The U.S. won 12 medals and eight golds to lead all nations in both categories at the finish of the World Indoor Track and Field Championships in Sopot, Poland, on Sunday.
The U.S. led the medal counts for the fourth straight World Indoors, boosted Sunday by the first global championship medals — golds — from Chanelle Price (800m) and Omo Osaghae (60m hurdles) and the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams.
The U.S. men’s 4x400m closed the meet with its only world indoor record — 3 minutes, 2.13 seconds.
The marquee event on the third and final day was the women’s 60m. Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won in 6.98 seconds, the second fastest time this millennium.
Fraser-Pryce, the two-time reigning Olympic 100m champion and world champion in the 100m and 200m, joined countrywoman Veronica Campbell-Brown as the only women to win world titles in the 60m, 100m and 200m.
The Ivory Coast’s Murielle Ahoure took silver in 7.01, followed by American Tianna Bartoletta (formerly Madison) in 7.06.
The seven-time Olympic medalist Campbell-Brown finished fifth in her first meet since it was revealed she failed a drug test in May.
In the 800m, Price shocked the field by winning in 2:00.09, the fastest time in the world this year. Price was the world’s 28th fastest woman in the 800m last year.
Osaghae took the 60m hurdles in a world-leading 7.45, prevailing by .01 and .02 over the French silver and bronze medalists. The U.S. has won every global 60m/110m hurdles championship since 2010, shared among four men.
American Bernard Lagat won silver in the 3000m. Lagat, at 39 years, 87 days old, became the oldest men’s medalist in World Indoor Championships history. Teammate Galen Rupp was fourth.
U.S. Olympic champion Jenn Suhr tied for fifth in the pole vault, won by Cuba’s Yarisley Silva. Silva was second to Suhr at the London Games.
Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba blew away the 3000m field, prevailing by 2.68 seconds but was more than 38 seconds slower than her world record set Feb. 6.
Track and field now enters the outdoor season. Key events include Diamond League meets beginning May 9, the U.S. Championships in Sacramento, Calif., from June 26-29 and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, beginning in late July.
Big road races come first, though. The New York City Half Marathon is next Sunday and includes Mo Farah. Farah is prepping for his marathon debut in London on April 13. The Boston Marathon is April 21.
