Canada's Perdita Felicien, US Lolo Jones and Canada's Priscilla Lopes-Schliep pose respectively with their silver, gold and bronze medals on the podium of the women's 60m hurdles final at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships at the Aspire Dome in the Qatari capital Doha on March 13, 2010. Getty Images/ MARWAN NAAMANIMARWAN NAAMANI/Getty Images
A pair of Canadians reached the podium at the World Indoor Championships on Saturday as Perdita Felicien won silver in the 60-metre hurdles and Priscilla Lopes-Schliep took the bronze.
Felicien from Pickering, Ont., finished second in 7.86 seconds, just ahead of Lopes-Schliep, a native of Whitby, Ont., who crossed in 7.87.
Lolo Jones of the United States took home the gold in 7.72.
"I competed, I fought hard and I got a silver so I'm happy," Felicien told The Canadian Press after the race.
Felicien recorded her fastest time of the season in the semifinal with a 7.94 and then bettered that mark in the final. She said she was playing catchup after Jones flew out of the starting blocks.
"I tried to ride her coattails as much as I could and just try to stay with her and dig deep," Felicien said. "When I got to the line, I didn't really know where I was, I knew that I didn't beat her and I knew that she had run pretty well.
"So when I saw that I was second, I was like 'Oh man, that's a bonus."'
For Lopes-Schliep, the bronze was a surprise since she didn't hear the starting gun from the speaker in the blocks behind her. She jumped out once she noticed her competitors move.
"I was like, 'Oh Priscilla, you've got to work,"' she said. "So that's all I thought. So to come out and do that (win a bronze) with that kind of situation, I'm pretty excited."
Felicien added the result will give her a big confidence boost ahead of the outdoor season and the Commonwealth Games in October.
"For me, I'm just going to run as fast as I can and set myself up for the next two years," Felicien said. "Which is world championships next year in Daegu (South Korea) and London 2012 and get that elusive Olympic medal that I need to seal off my career with."
Canadian Dylan Armstrong just missed the podium in the shot put. The native of Kamloops, B.C., set a Canadian indoor record with his throw of 21.39 metres but settled for fourth. He broke his own record that he set earlier this season.
In a good day for the U.S. team, Christian Cantwell won his third shot put title with a throw of 21.83 metres and Debbie Dunn added gold in the 400 metres. Olympic champion Bryan Clay, meanwhile, successfully defended his world indoor heptathlon title, beating fellow American Trey Hardee and Russia's Aleksey Drozdov.
Andrei Mikhenich of Belarus was second in the shot put with 21.68 and Ralf Bartels of Germany was third with 21.44.
Clay limited the damage in the 1,000 metres and finished the seven events with 6,204 points, 20 ahead of outdoor world champion Hardee. Drozdov had 6,141 for bronze.
Holding over a four-second edge over Hardee, Clay sought to control the 1,000 from the back, but Hardee created an ever bigger gap. Clay needed a big final lap to finish in two minutes 50.28 seconds, just 2.52 seconds behind Hardee.
Clay, who finished last in the 1,000, was running on empty late in the race.
"The last few years I've barely broke three minutes in the 1,000," he said. After a hesitant long jump on Friday, it was hard for the rest of the way.
"I didn't make it easy on myself in the last two days. I had a lot of attempts in things that I shouldn't have attempts at. So my legs were pretty tired, pretty fried."
Hardee said he knew Clay had won the moment he crossed the line, looked back and saw the Olympic champion less than three seconds behind him. Still, he was satisfied with silver in his first world indoors.
"I was happy. I was just running to keep my lead," said Hardee.
In the women's pentathlon, Britain's Jessica Ennis led from start to finish to take gold ahead of Olympic champion Natallia Dobrynska and Russia's Tatyana Chernova.
Ennis, the outdoor heptathlon world champion, finished with a championship record of 4,937 points, while Dobrynska set a Ukrainian record of 4,851. Behind Chernova's 4,762, U.S. athlete Hyleas Fountain set a North American record of 4,753.
Ethiopia's Meseret Defar has won her fourth 3,000-metre world indoor title in a row, beating Kenya's Vivian Cheruiyot in a sprint to the line. Defar's teammate Sentayehu Ejigu took the bronze.
Defar controlled the race for most of the race from third position and with 350 metres to go made a move to the front. She steadily increased her pace and no one could match it as she finished in eight minutes 51.17. Cheruiyot finished 0.68 seconds behind.
Cantwell won his third world indoor title in the shot, saving his biggest shot till his sixth and final attempt of 21.83 metres to overcome Belarusian Andrei Mikhnevich's 21.68. German Ralf Bartels took bronze with a personal best of 21.44.
Dunn added to the U.S. party mood when he took charge in the 400 early on and never let off to finish in 51.04. Jamaica's Novlene Williams-Mills stumbled off the track early on in a slight clash with Tatyana Firova but the Russian went on to finish 1.07 behind for silver.
With files from The Associated Press.