• World Indoor Athletics Championships

GB's relay gold reverts to silver on thrilling final day

Mo Farah finished outside of the medals © PA Photos

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Great Britain enjoyed their biggest medal haul in World Indoor Athletics Championships history on the final day in Turkey.

Mo Farah, who was initially bumped up to bronze in the 3000m after finishing outside of the medals, ended the day empty-handed upon appeal while Britain's women stormed to 4x400m relay gold.

The men thought they had completed an unlikely relay double after the USA were disqualified, but that decision was also later reversed, while elsewhere there were bronze medals for pole vaulter Holly Bleasdale, Shara Proctor in the long jump, and Andrew Osagie in the men's 800m.

Mo Farah was briefly awarded 3000m bronze following the disqualification of Kenya's Edwin Cheruiyot Soi after finishing out of the medals, but it was not to be for the Brit.

Farah was nearly knocked off the track after colliding with Soi on the final bend, and was later promoted to bronze after the Kenyan was disqualified as 37-year-old Bernard Lagat defended his title, with Kenya's Augustine Kiprono Choge winning silver. However, Soi appealled his disqualification successfully so Farah dropped back to fourth.

Content to allow the Kenyan pair to set the early pace, the world 5000m champion settled into the midfield, staying out of danger and moving onto the outside at any sign of being boxed in. He moved up onto leader Soi's shoulder with four laps remaining, before taking the lead with 600m to go.

However, Lagat, Choge and Soi kept up the pressure on the Brit and he was overhauled on the penultimate lap and was devastated to miss out on a medal.

Christine Ohuruogu produced a devastating third leg as Britain's women's 4x400m relay team of Shana Cox, Nicola Sanders, Ohuruogu and Perri Shakes-Drayton stunned the Americans to win gold.

The USA had a healthy lead at the halfway stage, but Olympic champion Ohuruogu overhauled Jernail Hayes before handing the baton to Shakes-Drayton, who held off Sanya Richards-Ross for gold. Hurdles specialist Shakes-Drayton crossed the line in 3:28.76, the fastest time in the world this year.

Shara Proctor won long jump bronze © PA Photos

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Moments later the British quartet of Conrad Williams, Nigel Levine, Michael Bingham and Richard Buck appeared to have secured an historic relay double for Britain in the men's 4x400m relay. However, after the US team were initially disqualified - handing Britain gold, the decision was then reversed to restore USA as the race winners.

Britain were leading at the halfway stage, but Bingham was overhauled on the third leg before Gil Roberts held off a determined Buck. The USA team were disqualified for 'exchanging positions before take-over', promoting Britain temporarily to gold.

However, an appeal from the US team proved successful, so the British quartet eventually had to settle for the silver that they initially thought they had earned, with Trinidad and Tobago third.

Meanwhile, Shara Proctor produced another national record to claim bronze in the women's long jump. Proctor, who broke her own British record in qualifying on Saturday, was in the gold medal position heading into the final round after a successful third attempt at 6.86m.

However, she slipped back to second following Janay DeLoach's leap of 6.98m, before defending champion Brittney Reese produced a monster effort of 7.23m to propel her into first place. Proctor bettered her third-round effort with a final leap of 6.89m, a new British record, but it did not affect the podium positions as the US-born Brit took bronze behind Reese and DeLoach.

Holly Bleasdale cleared 4.70m in the pole vault to claim bronze as world record holder Yelena Isinbayeva swept to victory. The Russian only needed two jumps to secure gold, clearing 4.80m to regain the title she won in 2008.

France's Vanessa Boslak was the only other athlete to clear 4.70m, but she claimed silver ahead of Bleasdale by virtue of fewer attempts at lower heights.

While Bleasdale was making her final effort, Andrew Osagie was in action on the track, claiming a surprise bronze medal in the men's 800m. Osagie looked set to finish outside the medals as he rounded the final bend in fourth place, but the Brit produced a timely kick to snatch bronze from Poland's Adam Kszczot in a race won by Ethiopia's Mohammad Aman.

British teenager Andrew Pozzi lowered his personal best for the second day in succession to book his place in the 60m hurdles final, but agonisingly finished fourth in the final after he failed to recover from a poor start.

In the women's 60m, Asha Philip missed out on a place in the final by one hundredth of a second, but world and European junior champion Jodie Williams was well off the pace.

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