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Danil Lysenko beats world champ Mutaz Essa Barshim to win indoors high jump

BIRMINGHAM, England -- Danil Lysenko reversed his world outdoors result with Mutaz Essa Barshim by winning their world indoors high jump duel on his final leap Thursday.

In contrast, Mariya Lasitskene dominated the rest of the field in the women's event.

Lysenko, an authorized neutral athlete, and Barshim of Qatar cleared three heights on their first attempts and were the only two to attempt 2.36 meters.

Barshim, the IAAF male athlete of 2017, failed at his first two attempts, as did Lysenko. Barshim let out a roar before his third attempt but again failed. Lysenko asked for quiet from the Arena Birmingham crowd and -- after a tense wait -- soared over.

"This is the most important result of my career," Lysenko said. "In London, it was tough. But here, it was really a pleasure to jump with these guys.

"This is unbelievable. Honestly, I did not expect to win and I did not think of it at all. I just tried to do my best."

Lysenko lost to Barshima at the world championships last year.

"I wasn't surprised Danil put in that jump," Barshim said. "I was surprised that it took him until the third, but it's good we can have that kind of competition to push us to jump higher."

Mateusz Przybylko of Germany was third, after failing to clear 2.33 meters, along with Erik Kynard of the United States. Przybylko promised "a big party" after winning his first medal.

Lasitskene, also jumping as an authorized neutral athlete, cleared all the heights on her first attempts up to 2.01 meters, by which time all her competitors had bowed out.

Defending champion Vashti Cunningham of the U.S. was second after failing at 1.96 meters, along with Alessia Trost of Italy, who took bronze.

Not content with claiming a 38th successive victory, Lasitskene continued to jump on her own, clearing 2.01 meters on her second attempt before failing on all three attempts at 2.07 meters, which would have been the second-highest indoor mark.

"Maybe it looked easy, but it was not," Lasitskene said. "It is very hard for me to jump without any strong opponents. If there was a girl pushing me, I am sure it could have been even higher. Now I have to wait for the next winter to show some high jumping indoors."

In the first track event, Genzebe Dibaba claimed her third successive world indoor title in the 3,000 meters.

Dibaba of Ethiopia timed 8 minutes, 45 seconds, 0.05 seconds, to edge out Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands by 0.63.

Cheered on by the home crowd, British athlete Laura Muir produced a home-straight burst but missed out on silver by 0.1. Muir celebrated her first world medal. She is the European indoors 1,500 and 3,000 champion.

All three medalists will compete in the 1,500.