Maslak, Kilty dominate Euro meet

BELGRADE — British sprinter Richard Kilty successfully defended his 60-meter title at the European Indoor Athletics Championships Saturday while Poland’s Pavel Maslak claimed a third 400m gold. After compatriot Andy Pozzi had won the 60m hurdles Friday, Kilty easily held on to his crown winning in 6.54sec ahead of Slovakia’s Jan Volko (6.58) and Austin Hamilton of Sweden (6.63). Maslak, meanwhile, dominated the 400m for a third time winning in a dominant time of 45.77sec with Rafal Omelko of the Czech Republic taking silver in 46.08 and Liemarvin Bonevacia of the Netherlands claiming bronze in a time of 46.26. Britain was also celebrating with Laura Muir, who has already set three European records this year, taking victory in the 1,500m. Olympic champion Ekaterini Stefanidi of Greece eased to victory in the pole vault with a height of 4.85m, beating out a challenge from Germany’s Lisa Ryzih who finished on 4.75m. In the 400m, France’s Floria Guei added the indoor title to her bronze medal outdoors in last year’s European championships. Lithuania’s Airine Palsyte stunned Olympic champion Ruth Beitia to win the high jump with a personal best of 2.01m. London Olympic high jump runner-up Erik Kynard captured his eighth consecutive national title. Kynard, who settled for sixth last year at the Rio Olympics, cleared 2.30m to edge runner-up Allex Austin’s 2.24 and add a fourth consecutive indoor national crown to a run that has seen him win four outdoor titles in a row as well. Olympic hammer thrower Berry won her fourth US indoor weight throw title in five years with a world-best mark of 25.60m effort, breaking the decade-old mark of 25.60 set by American Brittany Riley to beat Deanna Price by 1.30m. Lyles, a 19-year-old Floridian who won the 200m at the 2014 Young Olympics in Nanjing, won the 300m in 31.87 seconds, trimming .01 off the world best set by Wallace Spearmon in 2006 to defeat Paul Dedewo by .05 of a second. Eric Bougard, who won the pentathlon on Friday, captured her second title in the long jump with a leap of 6.44m. Phyllis Francis, a member of the Rio Olympic US women’s gold medal 4x400 relay, captured the women’s 300 in 36.15 seconds, edging Joanna Atkins by .03. Lyles and Berry set world indoor bests Teenager Noah Lyles ran the fastest indoor 300m of all-time as he and weight thrower Gwen Berry set world bests at the US championships Saturday. Lyles, 19, clocked 31.87 seconds at high altitude Albuquerque, New Mexico, to clip one-hundredth of a second off fellow American Wallace Spearmon’s 2006 best of 31.88. Berry unleashed a toss of 25.60 meters on her final throw, bettering the previous best of 25.56m by American Brittany Riley in 2007. Olympic medallists Paul Chelimo and Sam Kendricks also were winners. Chelimo ran away with the men’s two mile. His time of eight minutes, 28.53 seconds was more than 10 seconds faster than second place finisher Woody Kincaid. Kendricksdominated the pole vault with a clearance of 5.85 meters. — Agencies