Dvorak wins third world decathlon title

Defending champion Czech Tomas Dvorak won his third successive world decathlon title at the world athletics championships on Tuesday.

Dvorak stole first place from overnight leader Dean Macey of Britain at the start of the day's competition and went on to win in a new world championship record of 8,902 points.

Olympic champion Erki Nool of Estonia won the silver with 8,815 points, a national record and one point off his personal best. Macey registered his highest score ever, 8,603, to take the bronze medal.

Dvorak leapt to a personal best in the long jump on the way to victory.

"I started here with a dream of 8,700... it is a very nice result, I am very happy," he said.

With the win, Dvorak equalled American Dan O'Brien's string of successive wins in 1991, 1993 and 1995.

Czech Roman Sebrle, who created history in May by breaking through the 9,000-point barrier, finished in 10th position on 8,174 points.

Dvorak said he was concentrating on winning on Tuesday, rather than trying for Sebrle's world record of 9,026.

"I will save that for the future," he said. "The world record is a big dream but not here.

"After today I am pretty sure I am not ready to go with the old cars to the salvage yard."

CAMARADERIE

The exhausted trio ran a victory lap together after completing the 10 events over two days of competition.

"It's a nice tradition," said Nool, who has scored over 8,000 points on 22 occasions.

Macey said the camaraderie matched the rivalry on the field.

"What you see here is the right result," he said.

Nool said that before he came to the championships he had planned on scoring 8,850 points.

"I thought that if someone did more then I must be satisfied, and Tomas did," he said.

Nool finished 14th in Seville two years ago after failing to record a height in the pole vault.

Macey said he did not consider his bronze medal a step down from the silver he won at the world championships in Seville two years ago.

"I've got a medal in my pocket which is a step up from last year," he said, referring to his fourth place at the Sydney Olympics.

"This year I've been training from the start to be number one in the world. This time it didn't happen, but there is always next year and the year after."

He recorded three personal bests, in the high jump, the 400 metres and the 110 metres hurdles.