MOSCOW, Russia: In-form Grenadian Alleyne Francique became only the second man to successfully defend a World Indoor title when he crossed the line first to win the men's 400m dash on the final day of competition at the 11th IAAF Indoor Championships in the Olympic Sports Complex in Moscow on Sunday. Francique, who will also defend his Commonwealth Games title later this month in Melbourne, Australia, covered the first half of the race steadily before taking the lead at the sound of the bell to finish in a season-best time of 45.54. "It was my race and of course I have to be satisfied that I was able to defend my title," said Francique, who finished fourth at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens after being picked as the favourite. "I just ran as I wanted and as I planned. This gives me more motivation for the Commonwealth Games." California Molefe of Botswana came back from fourth place to finish second in 45.75, while Bahamian Chris Brown, a finallist at the World Championships in Helsinki, last summer took the bronze medal in a national record time of 45.78. Another Islander Davian Clarke of Jamaica, the silver medallist from Budapest two-years-ago, was fourth with another season-best 45.93. He came home ahead of American champion and two-time World Indoor silver medallist Milton Campbell (46.15) and Russian Dmitriy Petrov, in 47.33. Amertil repeated Birmingham performance There was no repeat for Russian two-time defending champion Natalya Nazarova as she finished fourth in the women's race. However, fellow countrywoman Olesya Krasnomovets, who finished second to Nazarova in Budapest, raced to a championship record 50.04 seconds to win the race. Vania Stambolova clocked a Bulgarian record 50.21 for silver, while Bahamian 2001 silver medallist from Birmingham Christine Amertil, took the bronze in a Central American record time of 50.34. Nazarova was on her way to defend her title but faded poorly in the homestretch to finish in 50.60. Jamaican Novlene Williams, a semi-finallist at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens placed fifth in 51.82. Sinclair's courageous run gave her silver The women's 800m went to Mozambique's Maria Mutola, who proved to the world that she is the greatest 800m runner of all-time by winning her seventh World Indoor title. The 33-year-old held off a valiant challenge from Jamaican Kenia Sinclair, who finished as the surprise silver medallist. Mutola finished the race in a year’s best 1:58.90, ahead the 25-year-old converted sprinter Sinclair, who continued to impress in the distance by producing yet another national record at these championship, with 1:59.54. Hasna Benhassi, the reigning World and Olympic silver medallist, held on for third in 2:00.34, also a season's best. In the relays, defending champions Jamaica crashed out in the heats of the men's 4x400 after Lanceford Spence collided with a French athlete Teddy Venel on the final change-over. Spence tumbled to the track and failed to finish the race; the French were disqualified. Another medal contender, the Bahamas also failed to finish in their heat. The Dominican Republic, however, made it to the finals and finished fifth in 3:08.47. Jamaica clocked a national record time of 3:29.54 to take fifth in the women's race The American and Cuban battle On Saturday in the men's 60m hurdles finals, Cuba’s new sensation, Dayron Robles narrowly missed winning a gold medal in his first indoor championships. Trammell, the bronze medallist in the 60m dash on Friday, had to produce a world-leading time of 7.43 to fend off the Cuban teenager, who had been a thorn in the American hurdler’s flesh throughout the competition. Using his experience and rapid speed over the shorter distance, Trammell, the Lisbon 2001 champion and two-time Olympic medallist, held off a determined Robles to add world title number two to his name. "I've had a lot of races and I just tried to stay focused the whole time," Trammell, who was running his sixth race in two days, said. "The guy (Robles) from Cuba ran a great race so I tried to run all the way through the tape." Trammell got a blistering start and he said that was the biggest factor in his victory. “The key was the start...so my focus was on the start. I got very close to gold a lot of times, so finally it came now," said Trammell, who became the first double medallist at the championships. Silver not bad first appearance Robles was the highlight of the early rounds and he definitely set his way to claim a medal. After blazing 7.55sec in the first round heats, Robles posted 7.56 in the semis, before fighting gallantly to a career best 7.46 in his first-ever appearance indoors. "It is my first experience indoors so it's not a bad one," said Robles, who added that he took each round in his stride. Close until the end American Dominique Arnold bounced back from his third fault at the championships to take a photo-finish bronze medal in a tight-finish field that saw him credited the same as Latvia's Stanislavs Olijars and Jamaican Maurice Wignall. All three men shared a time of 7.52. Medal favourites failed to deliver Jamaican world-leader Lacena Golding-Clarke, the pre-event favourite struggled midway in the women race after getting the better start on the field and had to settle for sixth in 7.94. Trecia Smith of Jamaica, the World outdoor champion from Helsinki last summer failed to win a medal indoors after finishing fourth in the triple finals. Smith leaped a national record effort of 14.84m, but still finished behind Russia’s defending World Indoor champion Tatyana Lebedeva (14.95), fellow Russian Anna Pyatykh (14.93) and former Cuban jumper Yamile Aldama, who now competes for Sudan. Aldama, the 1999 World silver medallist was fourth with a solid 14.86m, while Cuban Savigne Yargelis was fifth with a second round best of 14.72m. Reprinted from Caribbean Net News caribbeannetnews.com