'Underdog' Kilty Shocks Field to Win World Indoor 60m
Briton Richard Kilty, only racing as a replacement for injured teammate James Dasaolu, was a shock winner of the men's 60m gold at the World Indoor Athletics Championships on Saturday.
Kilty, 24, made a storming start and held his form to time a personal best of 6.49 seconds for a remarkable gold and said he thrived on his underdog tag in the lead-up to the race.
The rest of the eight-strong field came charging in within nine-hundredths of a second in a tight finish at a packed Ergo Arena in the Polish Baltic Sea resort town of Sopot.
"I'm stunned, I cannot believe it," said Kilty. "I went into the final relaxed and focused because after the semi-final I felt I could get close to 6.50sec.
"At the finish line I felt that the others were far behind. Even yesterday, people were telling me I should be happy to be here and I felt like an underdog.
"Nobody was thinking of me as a favorite and I showed them they were all wrong."
Kilty said his triumph made up for seasons of disappointment in not making the UK team.
"It's a big compensation for me," he said. "Over the last four years I've been knocked off the British team.
"Here, I managed to improve my personal best in every start and I know this is just a good push towards the outdoor season."
Rising U.S. star Marvin Bracy, who also plays as an American football wide receiver for the Florida State Seminoles out of Florida State University, took silver in 6.51sec and was left delighted.
"I had a great race," he said. "I'm only 20 years old and I can come back many times."
Nigerian-born Qatari Femi Ogunode claimed bronze (6.52) in a photo-finish with China's Bingtian Su and Zambia's Gerald Phiri.
British veteran Dwain Chambers was sixth in 6.53, just ahead of Jamaican favorite Nesta Carter, the fifth fastest man of all time over 100m.
They were two disappointing results for Chambers and Carter, an ever-present on the all-conquering Jamaican 4x100m relay team who won silver in the world indoors in Istanbul in 2012.
It could also mark an international swansong for the 35-year-old Chambers, who was caught using the designer steroid THG in 2003 and banned for two years, but who came back to win 60m bronze in Istanbul, gold in Doha in 2010 and silver in Valencia two years before that.